Studies based on contemporary plant occurrences and pollen fossil records have proposed that the current disjunct distribution of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) across South America is the result of fragmentation of a formerly widespread and continuously distributed dry forest during the arid climatic conditions associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is known as the mode...

Differentiation between Neotropical rainforest, dry forest, and savannah ecosystems by their modern pollen spectra and implications for the fossil pollen record Journal Article How to cite: Gosling, William D.; Mayle, Francis E.; Tate, Nicholas J. and Killeen, Timothy J. (2009). Differentiation between Neotropical rainforest, dry forest, and savannah ecosystems by their modern pollen spectra an...

Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) depend on predictable, frequent, and prolonged immersion in cloud. Clearing upwind lowland forest alters surface energy budgets in ways that influence dry season cloud fields and thus the TMCF environment. Landsat and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite imagery show that deforested areas of Costa Rica's Caribbean lowlands remain relatively cl...

Although clouds are the most recognisable and defining feature of tropical montane cloud forests, little research has focussed on how clouds affect plant functioning. We used satellite and ground-based observations to study cloud and leaf wetting patterns in contrasting tropical montane and pre-montane cloud forests. We then studied the consequences of leaf wetting for the direct uptake of wate...

This paper presents a summary of the forest fire reports in the insular Caribbean derived from both management reports and an analysis of publicly available Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrodiometer (MODIS) satellite active fire products from the region. A vast difference between the amount of fires reported by land managers and fire points in the MODIS Fire Information for Resource Managemen...

Pine trees cover large portions of the Himalayan region and are considered a hazard to cultivation and agriculture as well as the environment. This is because during the summer season, dry pine needles fall from the trees and cover the forest floor. Not only is this detrimental to cultivation, and the growth of grass needed as fodder for livestock, this is also a serious cause of uncontrolled f...

Background: Ever the dominant forest type along the Pacific coast of Central America, the tropical dry forest ecosystem is now the most severely endangered in the Neotropics, only 1.7% of the original cover remains in Central America (CalvoAlvarado et al., 2009). The Azuero Peninsula of Panama has lost most of its tropical dry forest due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier, which bega...

In 1998, we measured the effects of Hurricane Georges after it passed over long-term research sites in Puerto Rican dry forest. Our primary objectives were to quantify hurricane effects on forest structure, to compare effects in a large tract of forest versus a series of nearby forest fragments, to evaluate short-term response to hurricane disturbance in terms of mortality and sprouting, and to...

The context in which a forest exists strongly influences its function and sustainability. Unveiling the multi-scale nature of forest fragmentation context is crucial to understand how human activities affect the spatial patterns of forests across a range of scales. However, this issue remains almost unexplored in subtropical ecosystems. In this study, we analyzed temporal changes (1979-2010) in...

Ecology studies the relationships between living beings, environment, distribution, and abundance, how these properties are affected by interaction organisms environment in which they live (habitat), as well influence each being has on environment. Statistical methods fundamental for treatment of data dissemination information. The research focuses exposing multivariate techniques applied to an...