This rainforest occurs on Mauna Loa at 1500-2000 m elevation. Earthwatch volunteers, studying the habitat of 8 native forest bird species (3 endangered), identified 2382 living canopy trees, and 99 dead trees, on 68 study plots, 400 m2 each. Ohia made up 88% of the canopy; koa was 12%. The two-species lottery competition model, a stochastic model in which coexistence of species results from variation in recruitment and death rates, predicts a quadratic-beta distribution for the proportion of space occupied by one species. A discrete version was fit to the live tree data and a likelihood ratio test (p=0.02) was used to test if the mean death rates were equal. This test was corroborated by a contingency table analysis (p=0.03) based on dead trees. Parameter estimates from the two analyses were similar.
Citation Information
| Publication Year | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Title | An application of the lottery competition model to a montane rainforest community of two canopy trees, ohia (Metrosideros polymorpha) and koa (Acacia koa) on Mauna Loa, Hawaii |
| Authors | J. S. Hatfield, W.A. Link, D.K. Dawson, E. L. Lindquist |
| Publication Type | Article |
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Series Title | Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America |
| Index ID | 5223342 |
| Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
| USGS Organization | Patuxent Wildlife Research Center |