TITLE:
Contribution to the Knowledge of Plant Succession in the Lesser Antilles: The Case of the Lower Sylvan Vegetation Layer of Martinique
AUTHORS:
Philippe Joseph, Andreï Doncescu
KEYWORDS:
Lesser Antilles, Martinique Dry Bioclimate, Ecosystems, Phytocenoses, Biodiversity, Plant Succession
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.16 No.13,
December
29,
2025
ABSTRACT: The forest ecosystems of Martinique, like those of the Lesser Antilles, are diverse and, in some cases, quite complex. The numerous phytocenoses that make up these ecosystems are differentiated in terms of their surface area, floristic composition and age. Alongside the main ecological factors, such as rainfall and topographic facies, which define bioclimates and the layering of forest types, human activities are a determining factor in their structures, functions and spatio-temporal evolutionary processes. Anthropisation is also a significant factor in both the chorology of plant species and their autoecological and synecological dynamics. On the basis of field surveys within the dry bioclimate of Martinique in transects subdivided into quadrats, to which observations of more than two decades were associated, we attempted to decipher the affiliations of species with regard to the different timeframes of plant succession, and therefore phytocenotic succession, in particular sylvatic succession. The results obtained are encouraging, since they indicate that the typical species of this dry bioclimate belong to different stages of plant succession (plant dynamics), depending on their ecological profiles, and that for the same bioclimate and the same dynamic stage, the floristic assemblages can be different. Time, variations in the shape of the landscape and natural and/or anthropogenic changes condition phytocenotic evolution in terms of successions of ecological profiles. Another interesting and surprising aspect is that for two forest ecosystems colonising two contiguous vegetation layers influenced by two bioclimates and having reached their evolutionary maturity, there are transfers of species. This is the case for certain species of the typical tropical seasonal evergreen forest (mesophilous forest) which make up in small numbers the late seasonal, pre-climacic or climacic tropical evergreen forest of lower horizon and xeric facies (xerophilous forest).