Island biogeography of tropical alpine floras

Abstract

The flora of the Andean paramo is confirmed to be the most species rich of the tropical alpine regions. Paramo genera tend to be richer in species than afroalpine and tropicalpine Asian genera.

There is higher species turnover in the Andes and the floras of individual mountains are therefore quite distinct. In contrast, the floras of the East African mountains are more uniform and possess a relatively large number of widespread species.

Keywords

• Afroalpine
• Andes
• equatorial mountains
• habitat islands
• New Guinea
• p
  aramo
• plant species diversity
• species–area relationships
• tropicalpine