Understanding the spatial variation of a plant community’s composition in response to key environmental variables is a fundamental task to identify and promote better conservation strategies. In forested wetlands, hydrological regimes have been identified as crucial factors that shape the community’s attributes and composition patterns. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the response of a tropical forested wetland diversity and structural attributes, as well as its species composition to two types of environmental proxies related to flooding and salinity regimes: microtopography and distance to water bodies. The forest was characterized by sampling all the individuals with DBH ≥ 10 cm found inside twenty-five 25 × 50 m plots. Each plot’s microtopographic variables and distance to water bodies were extracted using a LiDAR point cloud. The response of the community’s attributes to the quantified environmental proxies was analyzed using an RDA ordination. Community composition was the only attribute where the ordination was significant, particularly only its first axis. Additional analysis showed that Rhizophora mangle was gradually substituted by Terminalia buceras as the most abundant species along the RDA first axis. This first axis was significantly correlated with two environmental proxies: distance to the lagoon’s edge and standard deviation of ground surface elevation. Moreover, linear regression analysis revealed that the abundance of three species was explained by these environmental proxies. R. mangle abundance showed a negative response to standard deviation of ground surface elevation, while T. buceras and Chrysobalanus icaco showed a positive response to distance to the lagoon’s edge.

了解植物群落组成对主要环境变量的响应的空间变化是确定和促进更好的保护策略的一项基本任务。在森林湿地中，水文状况已被确定为塑造社区属性和组成模式的关键因素。因此，本研究的目的是分析热带森林湿地多样性和结构属性及其物种组成对与洪水和盐渍化状况有关的两种环境代理的响应：微观地形和距水体的距离。该森林的特征是对25个25×50 m地块内所有DBH≥10 cm的个体进行采样。使用LiDAR点云提取每个样区的微地形变量和到水体的距离。使用RDA排序分析了社区属性对量化环境代理的响应。社区组成是协调重要的唯一属性，尤其是其第一轴。进一步分析表明沿根部发育区第一轴，根瘤菌逐渐被Terminalia buceras取代，成为最丰富的物种。该第一轴与两个环境代理显着相关：到泻湖边缘的距离和地表高程的标准偏差。此外，线性回归分析表明，这些环境代理解释了三种物种的丰度。R. mangle丰度对地面标高的标准偏差显示负响应，而T. buceras和Chrysobalanus icaco对到泻湖边缘的距离显示正响应。