Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Natural history, biogeography, and endangerment of Hawaiian dry forest trees

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 02 August 2009

Abstract

We describe the floristic composition of Hawaiian dry forest trees and identify natural history characteristics and biogeographic variables that are associated with risk of endangerment. Hawaiian dry forests are comprised of 109 tree species in 29 families, with 90% of all species endemic, 10% indigenous, and 37% single-island endemics. Forty-five percent of Hawaiian dry forest taxa are at risk of endangerment. Dry forest taxa at risk have a significantly larger range size compared to taxa from other Hawaiian forest types. Dispersal mechanism was a significant predictor of a species occurrence in dry forest compared to other forest types based on logistic regressions clustered by lineage. Among dry forest taxa, hermaphroditic breeding systems, autochorous dispersal mechanisms, conspicuous flowers, and dry fruit were all more likely to be at risk of endangerment. When analyses were clustered by lineage using logistic regressions, only dispersal mechanism and flower size were significant predictors of risk and taxa with autochorous dispersal and conspicuous flowers were more likely to be at risk. The Big Island, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai all have remarkably similar numbers of dry forest taxa (63–65 species) and dry forest taxa at risk of endangerment. However, Big Island and Kauai have the highest number and percentage of single-island endemics. These results demonstrate patterns of endangerment specific to Hawaiian dry forests, the high levels of endangerment in this forest type, and the importance of prioritizing conservation in dry forest regions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerly DD, Rankin-De-Merona JM, Rodrigues WA (1990) Tree densities and sex ratios in breeding populations of dioecious central Amazonian Myristicaceae. J Trop Ecol 6:239–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich PR, Hamrick JL (1998) Reproductive dominance of pasture trees in fragmented tropical forest mosaic. Science 281:103–105. doi:10.1126/science.281.5373.103

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Allison SD, Vitousek PM (2004) Rapid nutrient cycling in leaf litter from invasive plants in Hawaii. Oecologia 141:612–619. doi:10.1007/s00442-004-1679-z

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS (1997) Hawaiian native lowland vegetation in prehistory. In: Kirch PV, Hunt TL (eds) Historical ecology in the Pacific Islands. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Ward JV (1993) Environmental change and prehistoric Polynesian settlement in Hawai’i. Asian Perspect 32:205–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Ward JV, Wickler S (1992) Late Holocene lowland vegetation, Oahu, Hawaii. N Zeal J Archaeol 14:9–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Tuggle HD, Ward JV, Welch DJ (2002) Avifaunal extinctions, vegetation change, and Polynesian impacts in prehistoric Hawaii. Archaeol Ocean 37:57–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Benning TL, La Pointe D, Atkinson CT, Vitousek PM (2002) Interactions of climate change with biological invasions and land use in the Hawaiian Islands: modeling the fate of endemic birds using a geographic information system. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:14246–14249. doi:10.1073/pnas.162372399

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blackmore M, Vitousek PM (2000) Cattle grazing, forest loss, and fuel loading in a dry forest ecosystem at Puu Wa’aWa’a Ranch, Hawaii. Biotropica 32:625–632. doi:10.1646/0006-3606(2000)032[0625:CGFLAF]2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruegmann MM (1996) Hawaii’s dry forests. End Sp Bull 11:26–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock SH (1985) Breeding systems in the flora of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexico. Biotropica 17:287–301. doi:10.2307/2388591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burney LP, Burney DA (2003) Charcoal stratigraphies for Kauai and the timing of human arrival. Pac Sci 57:211–226. doi:10.1353/psc.2003.0011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burney DA, James HF, Burney LP, Olson SL, Kikuchi W, Wagner WL, Burney M, McCloskey D, Kikuchi D, Grady FV, Gage R, Nishek R (2001) Fossil evidence for a diverse biota from Kauai and its transformation since human arrival. Ecol Monogr 71:615–641

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabin RJ, Weller SG, Lorence DH, Flynn TW, Sakai AK, Sandquist D, Hadway LJ (2000) Effects of long-term ungulate exclusion and recent alien species control on the preservation and restoration of a Hawaiian tropical dry forest. Conserv Biol 14:439–453. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2000.99006.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlquist S (1970) Hawaii, a natural history. Natural History Press, Garden City

    Google Scholar 

  • Clague DA (1996) The growth and subsidence of the Hawaii-emperor volcanic chain. In: Keast A, Miller SE (eds) The origin and evolution of Pacific Island biotas, New Guinea to Eastern Polynesia: patterns and processes. SPB Academic Publishing BV, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Cordell S, Cabin RJ, Hadway LJ (2002) Physiological ecology of native and alien dry forest shrubs in Hawaii. Biol Invas 4:387–396. doi:10.1023/A:1023669530782

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crews TE, Kitayama K, Fownes JH, Riley RH, Herbert DA, Mueller-Dombois D, Vitousek PM (1995) Changes in soil phosphorous fractions and ecosystem dynamics across a long chronosequence in Hawaii. Ecology 76:1407–1424. doi:10.2307/1938144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cuddihy LW (1989) Vegetation zones of the Hawaiian Islands: effects of humans, their activities and introductions. In: Stone CP, Stone DB (eds) Conservation biology in Hawaii. Cooperative national park resources studies unit. University of Hawaii, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuddihy LW, Stone CP (1990) Alteration of native Hawaiian vegetation. Cooperative national park resources studies unit. University of Hawaii, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • da Silva JM, Tabarelli M (2000) Tree species impoverishment and the future flora of the Atlantic forest of northeast Brazil. Nature 404:72–74. doi:10.1038/35003563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gentry AH (1982) Patterns of Neotropical plant species diversity. Evol Biol 15:1–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Giambelluca TW, Nullet MA, Schroeder TA (1986) Rainfall atlas of Hawaii. Department of Land and Natural Resources, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie TW (2002) Latitudinal extent and natural history characteristics of birds in Nicaragua. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 11:411–417. doi:10.1046/j.1466-822x.2002.00295.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hotchkiss S, Juvik JO (1999) A late-quaternary pollen record from Ka’au Crater, O’ahu, Hawai’i. Quat Res 52:115–128. doi:10.1006/qres.1999.2052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howe HE (1984) Implications of seed dispersal by animals for tropical reserve management. Biol Conserv 30:261–281. doi:10.1016/0006-3207(84)90087-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IUCN (2003) 2003 IUCN red list of threatened species. http://www.redlist.org. Cited 14 June 2006

  • Janzen DH (1988) Tropical dry forests: the most endangered major tropical ecosystem. In: Wilson EO (ed) Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH, Martin PS (1982) Neotropical anachronisms: the fruits the gomphotheres ate. Science 215:19–27. doi:10.1126/science.215.4528.19

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1982) The impact of prehistoric Polynesians on the Hawaiian ecosystem. Pac Sci 36:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1985) Feathered gods and fishhooks: an introduction to Hawaiian archaeology and prehistory. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1994) The wet and the dry: irrigation and agricultural intensifications in Polynesia. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitamura S, Suzuki S, Yumoto T, Chuailua P, Plongmai K, Poonswad P, Noma N, Maruhashi T, Suckasam C (2005) A botanical inventory of a tropical seasonal forest in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand: implications for fruit-frugivore interactions. Biodivers Conserv 14:1241–1262. doi:10.1007/s10531-004-7848-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitayama K, Mueller-Dombois D (1995) Vegetation changes along gradients of long-term soil development in the Hawaiian montane rainforest zone. Plant Ecol 120:1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunin WE, Gaston AJ (eds) (1997) The biology of rarity: causes and consequences of rare-common differences. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerdau M, Whitbeck J, Holbrook NM (1991) Tropical deciduous forests: death of a biome. Trends Ecol Evol 6:201–202. doi:10.1016/0169-5347(91)90019-T

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Miles L, Newton AC, DeFries RS, Ravilious C, May I, Blyth S, Kapos V, Gordon JE (2006) A global overview of the conservation status of tropical dry forests. J Biogeogr 33:491–505. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01424.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller-Dombois D, Fosberg RF (1998) Vegetation of the tropical Pacific Islands. Springer-Verlag, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy PG, Lugo AE (1986) Ecology of tropical dry forest. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 17:67–88. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.17.110186.000435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, da Fonseca GA, Kent J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403:853–858. doi:10.1038/35002501

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nason JD, Aldrich PR, Hamrick JL (1998) The breeding structure of a tropical keystone plant resource. Nature 391:685–687. doi:10.1038/35607

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Olson SL, James HF (1982) Fossil birds from the Hawaiian Islands: evidence for wholesale extinction by man before western contact. Science 217:633–635. doi:10.1126/science.217.4560.633

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olson SL, James HF (1984) The role of Polynesians in the extinction of the avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. In: Martin PS, Klein RG (eds) Quarternary extinctions. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennington RT, Lewis G, Ratter JA (2006) Neotropical savannas and seasonally dry forests: plant diversity, biogeography, and conservation. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Price JP (2004) Floristic biogeography of the Hawaiian Islands: influences of area, environment and paleogeography. J Biogeogr 31:487–500

    Google Scholar 

  • Price JP, Elliot-Fisk DL (2004) Topographic history of the Maui Nui complex, Hawai’i, and its implications for biogeography. Pac Sci 58:27–45. doi:10.1353/psc.2004.0008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price JP, Gon SMIII, Jacobi JD, Matsuwaki D (2008) Mapping plant species ranges in the Hawaiian Islands: developing a methodology and associated GIS layers. Hawai’i cooperative studies unit technical report HCSU-000. University of Hawaii, Hilo

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinowitz D, Cairns S, Dillon T (1986) Seven forms of rarity and their frequency in the flora of the British Isles. In: Soule Michael E (ed) Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and rarity. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Rock JF (1913) The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands. Reprinted in 1974 by Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii, and Charles F. Tuttle, Rutland

  • Rolett B, Diamond J (2004) Environmental predictors of pre-European deforestation on Pacific Islands. Nature 431:443–446. doi:10.1038/nature02801

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sakai AK, Wagner WL, Mehrhoff LA (2002) Patterns of endangerment in the Hawaiian flora. Syst Biol 51:276–302. doi:10.1080/10635150252899770

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW (1995) Prehistoric extinctions of Pacific Island birds: biodiversity meets zooarchaeology. Science 267:1123–1131. doi:10.1126/science.267.5201.1123

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stone CP, Cuddihy LW, Tunison JT (1992a) Responses of Hawaiian ecosystems to removal of feral goats and pigs. In: Stone CP, Smith CW, Tunison JT (eds) Alien plant invasions on native ecosystems of Hawaii. Cooperative National Park Resources Studies Unit, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone CP, Smith CW, Tunison JT (1992b) Alien plant invasions on native ecosystems of Hawaii. Cooperative National Park Resources Studies Unit, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • US Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS (2006) List of threatened and endangered plants of Hawaii. http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/pubs/TEplant.html. Cited 13 May 2007

  • van Riper CIII, van Riper SG, Goff ML, Laird M (1986) The epizootiology and ecological significance of malaria in Hawaiian land birds. Ecol Monogr 56:327–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vieira DLM, Scariot A (2006) Principles of natural regeneration of tropical dry forests for restoration. Restor Ecol 14:11–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Loope LL, Stone CP (1987) Introduced species in Hawaii: biological effects and opportunities for ecological research. Trends Ecol Evol 2:224–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner WL, Herbst DR, Sohmer SH (1999) Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter H (1971) Ecology of tropical and subtropical vegetation. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock D (2003) To restore the watersheds: early twentieth-century tree planting in Hawai’i. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 93:624–635. doi:10.1111/1467-8306.9303006

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the federal and state agencies and particularly the Nature Conservancy Hawaii for granting us permission to do research in the Hawaiian Islands. We also thank Kapua Kawelo and Dan Sailer for transportation and technical support on Oahu. We thank Clyde Imada and Napua Harbottle at the Bishop Museum for permissions to examine herbarium specimens. For assistance with field surveys we thank Elizabeth Del Cid, Jo Sito, Scott Pipken, Markie Daniel, Robert Gillespie, Kathy Gillespie, Glen MacDonald, Irem Sepil, and John May. Finally, we thank an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript. This research was funded by the National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation BCS0455052, Undergraduate Research Fellowship, UCLA Department of Geography, UCLA Stephen A. Varva Fellowship, and NASA Earth System Science Fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1524, USA

    Stephanie Pau & Thomas W. Gillespie

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Hawaii—Hilo, Hilo, HI, 96720, USA

    Jonathan P. Price

Authors
  1. Stephanie Pau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas W. Gillespie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jonathan P. Price
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie Pau.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9704-5

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

See Table 5.

Table 5 Native trees (dbh ≥ 2.5 cm) that occur in Hawaiian dry forests (N = 109). Taxonomy follows Wagner et al. (1999). Species were classified into their driest moisture regime: arid, dry, moderately dry, or seasonal mesic
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pau, S., Gillespie, T.W. & Price, J.P. Natural history, biogeography, and endangerment of Hawaiian dry forest trees. Biodivers Conserv 18, 3167–3182 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9635-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9635-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation