Are landscape attributes a useful shortcut for classifying vegetation in the Tropics? A case study of La Amistad International ParkBITR-16-382 Data matrix.xlsx

Given the existence of floristic data for many localities we ask, how useful is floristic data for developing classificationschemes in species-rich tropical landscapes? Can floristic data provide support for classification according to river catchment? We analysed the distribution of vascular plant species within plots across an elevation gradient of 130 to 3200 m asl within La Amistad National Park (PILA). We tested the hypothesis that elevation explains the most amount of variation in species composition by applying multivariate analyses to community structure.