Influence of forest conservation on the tree diversity and floristic composition in the southwest peruvian Amazon

The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of forest conservation on diversity and floristic composition in Madre de Dios (Peru). We analyzed 53 Gentry transects in protected and unprotected forests. All individuals with a DBH >= 2,5 cm was recorded. With this information we calculated the floristic attributes of species richness, genera, families, and diversity. To compare floristic attributes, we used an Analysis of Variance method (ANOVA) along with multivariate techniques to evaluate their similarity and represent them in a series of graphs. A total of 915 species were recorded belonging to 11404 individuals, 329 genera and 90 families. The species richness found in this study is lower in comparison to previous investigations in the Peruvian Amazon. The abundance found in protected forests were significantly superior than that of unprotected forest. In terra firme forest there was no statistically significant differences of species richness and diversity between protected and unprotected forests (ANOVA, P<0,05), nevertheless, we found differences in floristic composition (PERMANOVA, P <0,001) between forest types. We estimate that Madre de Dios has 1430 +/- 130 tree species > 2,5 cm DBH.