Samenvatting

The Amazon Basin contains some of the most biodiverse tropical forests on Earth, yet floodplain forests, despite their ecological importance, remain understudied at fine spatial scales. Rapid anthropogenic disturbances such as illegal gold mining, selective logging, and forest clearing in the Madre de Dios region of Peru threaten these habitats, creating an urgent need for detailed ecological information to support effective conservation planning. This study evaluates how forest structure and tree species composition differ between adjacent lowland floodplain forests on the northern and southern banks of the Tambopata River near the Secret Forest Research Station of Fauna Forever, and how these patterns relate to soil characteristics and distance from the river.