PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 69: Forest Ecology IV: Communities.
Presiding: D Gavin
Thursday, August 7. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 200.

Pre-montane forest succession reconstructed from a chronosequence in Costa Rica.

Haines, Bruce ^*,1, Ruiz-Bernard, Ivelisse², Peterson, Chris¹, Cole-Christensen, Darryl³, ¹ University of Georgia, Athens, GA., USA, USA² University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR., USA, USA³ Finca Loma Linda, Agua Buena, Coto Brus, Costa Rica

ABSTRACT- Secondary succession was investigated to determine the time required to naturally regenerate forest on abandoned agricultural lands near Agua Buena, Costa Rica (Lat 8.7 N, Long 82.9 W, elev. 1400 m). Trees of > 10 cm diameter at breast height were inventoried in 7 conterminous patches of forest 11, 12, 29, 38, 40, and 50 years of age and in old growth forest (approximately 500 years of age). Preceding agricultural uses of these patches were beans and corn, coffee, beans, pasture, pasture, unknown, and corn and cassava respectively. Tree species richness values were 9, 2, 4, 17, 17, 20 and 22 respectively, while basal areas were 7, 6, 8, 20, 36, 39 and 30 m²/ha respectively. Densities were 500, 110, 300, 750, 410, 752 and 620 stems/ha. Tree species richness and basal areas differed little between the 50-year old and the old growth patches, suggesting very little accumulation between these ages. Forest regeneration on isolated abandoned patches will likely be slower because of seed dispersal limitations. These findings have important implications for landscape management.

Key words: succession, chronosequence, tropical, forest