Sucesión de un bosque tropical seco en la Isla San Lucas, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22458/urj.v5i2.280Abstract
The tropical dry forest is the most threatened ecosystem in the neotropics, and management strategies are needed to conserve the last remnants of this type of forest. Using the plant diversity as an indicator, we evaluate the natural regeneration and the successional status of a forest in the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Isla San Lucas. We established 13 plots where we measured tree diameter, height and crown cover. We also measured the regeneration by counting and identifying all the saplings of the plots. We calculated the basal area, aerial biomass, relative density, relative frequency, relative dominance and the importance value index (IVi) at the family and species level, on both the saplings and adult trees. The island forest presented an average cover of 66,11% with high variation among plots (±20,22%) and it contains 25 species of saplings and trees. About half (52,2%) of the tree individuals presented a height between 5,87 and 9,90m. Also we found a typical J inverted distribution of the diameter classes, which evidenced healthy forest regeneration potential, related with the high thin stem density. Fabaceae and Sapindaceae families presented the highest IVi, for both trees and saplings respectively. A species evenness of 52% among stand ages groups indicates a species turnover between the trees and the tree saplings. Although the diversity value was pretty similar, tree sapling diversity presented a slightly higher value; a commonly found trait in young secondary forests.
KEY WORDS
Tropical dry forest, natural succession, plant diversity, importance value index, secondary forest
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