Gerardo Aymard

Gerardo Aymard
Ciprogress Greenlife - Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, UNELLEZ · Botany Department

Professor
Botanist Advisor

About

366
Publications
282,591
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
15,176
Citations
Additional affiliations
May 1981 - July 2008
Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, UNELLEZ
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
January 1981 - February 2016
Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, UNELLEZ
Position
  • Associate Curator
January 1981 - March 2016
Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, UNELLEZ
Position
  • Associate Curator

Publications

Publications (366)
Article
Full-text available
The density of wood is a key indicator of the carbon investment strategies of trees, impacting productivity and carbon storage. Despite its importance, the global variation in wood density and its environmental controls remain poorly understood, preventing accurate predictions of global forest carbon stocks. Here we analyse information from 1.1 mil...
Article
Full-text available
We describe the geographical variation in tree species composition across Amazonian forests and show how environmental conditions are associated with species turnover. Our analyses are based on 2023 forest inventory plots (1 ha) that provide abundance data for a total of 5188 tree species. Within-plot species composition reflected both local enviro...
Article
Full-text available
Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense terrestrial ecosystems yet recorded. Collectively, they comprise a large but highly uncertain reservoir of the global carbon cycle, with wide-ranging estimates of their global area (441 025–1700 000 km²) and below-ground carbon storage (105–288 Pg C). Substantial gaps remain in our understanding of...
Article
Full-text available
Ecological and anthropogenic factors shift the abundances of dominant and rare tree species within local forest communities, thus affecting species composition and ecosystem functioning. To inform forest and conservation management it is important to understand the drivers of dominance and rarity in local tree communities. We answer the following r...
Article
Full-text available
Doliocarpus daironii, an endemic species to the Colombian Amazon forests, is described and increases to 25 the number of species of the genus recorded from this country. This new species shows certain similarities with D. amazonicus, D. duckeanus, and D. guianensis. Nonetheless, D. daironii is more related to D. guianensis, but differs from the lat...
Article
Aim: We test the hypothesis that wind dispersal is more common among emergent tree species given that being tall increases the likelihood of effective seed dispersal. Location: Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Time period: 1970–2020. Major taxa studied: Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. Methods: We used a dataset consisting of tree inventories f...
Article
Full-text available
The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is unclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected by prior adaptation, or more vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits. Here we report that forests in drier South Americ...
Article
Full-text available
The emergence of alternative stable states in forest systems has significant implications for the functioning and structure of the terrestrial biosphere, yet empirical evidence remains scarce. Here, we combine global forest biodiversity observations and simulations to test for alternative stable states in the presence of evergreen and deciduous for...
Book
Full-text available
RESUMEN Se presenta la caracterización fitosociológica de los bosques de la Orinoquía de Colombia. Se realizaron levantamientos de vegetación en bosques inundables, seminundables y no inundables, que consistieron en parcelas de 100 × 10 m orientadas aleatoriamente, las cuales evitan zonas alteradas como caminos o claros y tienen homogeneidad florís...
Book
Full-text available
Se realizaron levantamientos de vegetación de los pastizales de la Orinoquía de Colombia en condiciones inundables, no inundables y seminundables.
Article
Full-text available
Amazonia’s floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree...
Preprint
Full-text available
The density of wood is a key indicator of trees’ carbon investment strategies, impacting productivity and carbon storage. Despite its importance, the global variation in wood density and its environmental controls remain poorly understood, preventing accurate predictions of global forest carbon stocks. Here, we analyze information from 1.1 million...
Article
Full-text available
Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated w...
Article
Full-text available
Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we i...
Article
Full-text available
Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we inve...
Article
Full-text available
A new record for the flora of Venezuela and the Rio Negro Basin, Douradoa consimilis, is reported herein. It was collected in the Ekeweni river, a major tributary of the San Miguel River, itself a tributary of the Guainía river that eventually becomes the Rio Negro after its confluence with the Casiquiare canal. It was collected in vegetation subje...
Article
lar species are discussed. C. gonzalopalominoi is found in dry forest remnants in the Western Andean foothills and on the slopes of the Central Cordillera of Colombia. This is a region composed of low hills and plains systems inside inter-Andean valleys in the upper Magdalena River in the Department of Tolima. The new species is a tree up to 20 m t...
Article
Full-text available
Aim To determine the relationships between the functional trait composition of forest communities and environmental gradients across scales and biomes and the role of species relative abundances in these relationships. Location Global. Time period Recent. Major taxa studied Trees. Methods We integrated species abundance records from worldw...
Article
Full-text available
Background and Aims: Caryodaphnopsis is a tropical genus with an amphipacific distribution, comprising 19 species (including the two described here), 10 of which are from the Neotropics. Two new species of Caryodaphnopsis are described from wet forest remnants in the Western slopes of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia in Boyacá and Santander depar...
Article
Full-text available
Background and Aims: Caryodaphnopsis is a tropical genus with an amphi-Pacific distribution, comprising 19 species, 10 of which Neotropical. Two new species are described from wet forest remnants on the western slopes of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, which is part of the Magdalena Medio biogeographical region. Their morphological relationship...
Article
Full-text available
Grias lucindoae, a new species from the Western Andean slopes of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (Serranía de Las Quinchas), is described and illustrated, and its morphological similarities with comparable species are discussed. This new species is a tree between 10 and 15 m tall from montane forest remnants (900–1200 m). Grias lucindoae shares...
Article
Full-text available
Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system¹. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2–5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these est...
Article
Full-text available
ARTICLE Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by fore...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding what controls global leaf type variation in trees is crucial for comprehending their role in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon, water and nutrient dynamics. Yet our understanding of the factors influencing forest leaf types remains incomplete, leaving us uncertain about the global proportions of needle-leaved, broadleaved, ever...
Article
Full-text available
Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Mo...
Article
We present a comprehensive taxonomic revision of the tree genus Eperua, encompassing several significant findings. We identify and recognize a total of 19 species (including two new species described herein; E. froesii, E. reddeniae), as well as five subspecies (including one new, E. grandiflora subsp. ciliata), and six varieties (including one new...
Article
We present a comprehensive taxonomic revision of the tree genus Eperua, encompassing several significant findings. We identify and recognize a total of 19 species (including two new species described herein; E. froesii, E. reddeniae), as well as five subspecies (including one new, E. grandiflora subsp. ciliata), and six varieties (including one new...
Article
Premise: The Amazonian hyperdominant genus Eperua (Fabaceae) currently holds 18 described species and has two strongly different inflorescence and flower types, with corresponding different pollination syndrome. The evolution of these vastly different inflorescence types within this genus was unknown and the main topic in this study. Methods: We...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter presents the first attempt at a phytosociological analysis of forests in the upper Rio Negro (north-western Amazon) and adjacent south-western Orinoco basins, based on both floristic composition and species relative dominance. The region harbors unique plant communities that thrive under very wet climatic conditions on oligotrophic soi...
Article
Full-text available
Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species1,2. Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies3,4. Here, leveraging global tree databases5-7, we explore how the phy...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we describe and illustrate Schlegelia longirachis a new species from montane forest remnants (1200--1900 m) in the Western slope of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (“Serranía de Las Quinchas” and Virolín county) in the Departments of Boyacá and Santander. A root-climbing liana, the new species is contrasted to S. fuscata , S. monac...
Article
Full-text available
A new species of Vochysia, V. wilsonii (section Ciliantha, subsection Ferruginea), is described, and its morphological relationships with other similar Vochysia species are discussed. Vochysia wilsonii is found in wet forests over sandstone tabletop outcrops (“Mesetas”) and white sand soils in the Araracuara (“medio río Caquetá”) and Chiribiquete a...
Article
Full-text available
A new checklist and key to the species of Monnina in the flora of Venezuela, which currently includes 16 species, are presented. M. salicifolia and M. smithii, the former previously known along the Andes from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and the latter from Colombia, are reported here as new country records. Through the revision of the nom...
Article
Full-text available
1. Biodiversity is an important component of natural ecosystems, with higher species richness often correlating with an increase in ecosystem productivity. Yet, this relationship varies substantially across environments, typically becoming less pronounced at high levels of species richness. However, species richness alone cannot reflect all importa...
Book
Full-text available
Of the flowering plants of Colombia, there are close records of 24,000 species, distributed in the five natural regions of Colombia. In the Andes, there is representative information of the different floristic groups recognized for the country and therefore there are inputs to carry out analyzes in territorial units such as departments that support...
Article
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important...
Article
Full-text available
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important...
Chapter
Full-text available
Se presenta la caracterización fitosociológica de los bosques de la Orinoquía de Colombia. Se realizaron levantamientos de vegetación en bosques inundables, seminundables y no inundables, que consistieron en parcelas de 100 × 10 m orientadas aleatoriamente, las cuales evitan zonas alteradas como caminos o claros y tienen homogeneidad florística. En...
Chapter
Full-text available
Se presenta la caracterización fitosociológica de los pastizales de la Orinoquía de Colombia. Se realizaron levantamientos de vegetación de 100 m2 en bancos, bajos (freáticos y de desborde), herbazales, pastizales y arbustales en condiciones inundables, no inundables y seminundables. En cada levantamiento y para cada especie se calculó la cobertura...
Article
Full-text available
Magnolia pajarito, a new species from the Andean slopes of the eastern cordillera of colombia, is described and illustrated , and its morphological relationships with other similar Magnolia species are discussed. this new species is a tree between 9 and 30 m tall from montane forest remnants and pasture lands with dispersal trees (1500-1700 m), and...
Article
Full-text available
A new species and two new records of Securidaca were found during the preparation of an updated checklist of Polygalaceae for the Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora de Venezuela and Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. Securidaca aquae-nigrae from the upper Rio Negro (northern/northwestern Amazon basin) and part of the adjacent southwestern Orinoco...
Article
Full-text available
Aim To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser‐avail...
Article
Full-text available
Tree diversity and composition in Amazonia are known to be strongly determined by the water supplied by precipitation. Nevertheless, within the same climatic regime, water availability is modulated by local topography and soil characteristics (hereafter referred to as local hydrological conditions), varying from saturated and poorly drained to well...
Article
Full-text available
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we...
Article
Full-text available
Guapira fundacionensis from montane forests over the “Aguardiente” sandstone formation, “La Fundación” region, Andes of Táchira State, and Guapira guasarensis from “río Guasare”, on foothills and montane forests located in eastern side of Sierra de Perijá, Zulia state, both in Venezuela, are described, illustrated, and their morphological relations...
Article
Forest vegetation (flooded, semi-flooded, and non-flooded or “terra firme”) of the Cumaribo region was characterized using data from 29 plots. This sector is located in municipality at the Vichada department, and in adjacent areas of the Guainía and Guaviare departments, Colombia. In 1000 m2 plots, all individuals with a diameter (DAP) > 10 cm were...
Article
Aim Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. Most research has focused on the impacts of climatic water availability, whereas remarkably little is known about the influence of water table depth and excess soil water on forest processes. Nevertheless, given that plants take up water from the soil, the impacts...
Article
One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknow...
Article
Full-text available
Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Peter B. Reich, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Jingjing Liang, et al. (2022) The number of tree species on Earth. PNAS 2022 Vol. 119 No. 6 e2115329119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115329119
Article
Full-text available
One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknow...
Article
Full-text available
Significance Tree diversity is fundamental for forest ecosystem stability and services. However, because of limited available data, estimates of tree diversity at large geographic domains still rely heavily on published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage. These limitations have precluded efforts to generate a g...
Article
Full-text available
Macrolobium �loridum, an endemic species to the Coastal Cordillera of Venezuela, was collected in 1844 by Hermann Karsten, and described by himself in 1861. This taxon had not been recollected until the new reports presented here. A full description based on recent collections, which for the first time includes the fruit, and an updated key to the...
Article
Full-text available
Neea gustaviaefolia, a new species from the wet forests from “Sierra de La Macarena” and upper “Guaviare” river regions of Colombia (Guaviare and Meta departments) is described, illustrated, and its morphological relationships are discussed. This new species is a small tree of 6 m tall, on the basis of its alternate, oblanceolate larger leaves and...
Article
Full-text available
Ternstroemia killipiana, a species endemic to Cordillera Oriental of Colombia, was collected by Ellsworth P. Killip in 1926, and described by Clarence E. Kobuski in 1942. Since this date, this taxon it had not been recollected until the new collection reported here. A full description based on recent collection from “Serranía de Las Quinchas” (midd...
Article
Full-text available
El presente ensayo trata de responder una pregunta que ha ocupado a muchos escritores desde el siglo XVI hasta el presente: ¿por dónde salió el Tirano Aguirre al océano Atlántico, para luego saquear la isla de Margarita y hacer estragos en lo que hoy en día es Venezuela?, ¿Por el delta del río Amazonas o por el del Orinoco? (Figura 1). La pregunta...
Article
Full-text available
Vochysia carol-scottii from the pluvial forests of “Chocó biogeográfico,” a megadiverse region between the Pacific Ocean and the slopes of the Colombian Western Cordillera, Valle del Cauca department, is described and illustrated, and its morphological relationships with other similar Vochysia species are discussed. This new species is a small tree...
Chapter
Full-text available
Piper otto-huberi Steyerm. (Piperaceae) and Capparidastrum huberi Iltis & Cornejo (Capparaceae) are recorded for the first time in the vascular flora of Colombia based on two collections of the “Caño Cadá”, an affluent of the Uva river, and the latter an affluent of the medium river Guaviare, Vichada Department. These species were collected during...
Article
Full-text available
The forests of Amazonia are among the most biodiverse plant communities on Earth. Given the immediate threats posed by climate and land-use change, an improved understanding of how this extraordinary biodiversity is spatially organized is urgently required to develop effective conservation strategies. Most Amazonian tree species are extremely rare...
Article
Full-text available
Tropical forests are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. While better understanding of these forests is critical for our collective future, until quite recently efforts to measure and monitor them have been largely disconnected. Networking is essential to discover the answers to questions that transcend borders and the horizons of...
Preprint
Full-text available
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important...
Article
Full-text available
Five keys without reproductive features are presented for the identification of the genera (Compsoneura, Iryanthera, Osteophloeum, Otoba and Virola) and species the family Myristicaceae registered for the Rio Negro basin (Brazil, Colombia, Guyana and Venezuela). Information was obtained from the study of 510 trees in the field and 1,300 herbarium s...
Article
Full-text available
The forests of Amazonia are among the most biodiverse plant communities on Earth. Given the immediate threats posed by climate and land-use change, an improved understanding of how this extraordinary biodiversity is spatially organized is urgently required to develop effective conservation strategies. Most Amazonian tree species are extremely rare...
Article
Full-text available
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20537-x
Chapter
Dilleniaceae Flora of Ecuador
Article
Abstract. Bacopa llanorum, a new species from the seasonally flooded savannas of the “Llanos” region of Colombia (Arauca department) is described and illustrated, and its morphological relationships are discussed. On the basis of its dimorphic leaves (the innermost blade filiform, uppermost lanceolate-ovate), the new species does not appear to be a...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract. Besleria naquenensis is described and illustrated on the basis of a collection from the understory of seasonally flooded forests drained by black waters located in the lower “Río (Caño) Naquén,” northwestern base of “Serranía de Naquén,” upper Guainía River basin, Guainía Department, Colombia, and its relationships with related species ar...
Article
Full-text available
The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers of tropical tree death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment of how and why trees die, analysing over 120,000 trees representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While tree mortality...
Article
Full-text available
The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers of tropical tree death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment of how and why trees die, analysing over 120,000 trees representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While tree mortality...