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Climate model projections for tropical regions show clear perturbation of precipitation patterns leading to increased frequency and severity of drought in some regions. Previous work has shown declining soil moisture to be a strong driver of changes in microbial trait distribution, however, the feedback of any shift in functional potential on ecosystem properties related to carbon cycling are poorly understood. Here we show that drought-induced changes in microbial functional diversity and activity shape, and are in turn shaped by, the composition of dissolved and soil-associated carbon....

Primary productivity in tropical forests is often considered limited by phosphorus (P) availability. Microbial activity is a key regulator of available P through organic matter decomposition (supply) as well as microbial immobilization (depletion). Environmental conditions, such as soil moisture and temperature can fluctuate significantly on hourly to daily timescales in tropical forested ecosystems. Given the ability of microbes to respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions we would expect concomitant changes in the available soil P pool. Despite the potential for soil P...

Studies of land surface dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes often require remote sensing datawith high acquisition frequency and high spatial resolution. However, no single sensor meets this requirement. This study presents a new spatiotemporal data fusion method, the Flexible Spatiotemporal DAta Fusion (FSDAF) method, to generate synthesized frequent high spatial resolution images through blending two types of data, i.e., frequent coarse spatial resolution data, such as that from MODIS, and less frequent high spatial resolution data such as that from Landsat. The proposed method is based...

Herein we provide the context within which the 16th Caribbean Foresters Meeting took place, some background information about the meeting, and a general introduction to this Special Issue focused on that meeting.

Herein we provide concluding remarks drawn from and inspired by the discussions of the 5 working groups of the 16th Caribbean Foresters Meeting (CFM) about the needs, challenges, and recommendations to advance forestry in the Caribbean region. We also list key considerations and potential future research directions as presented in the various manuscripts contained in this Special Issue.

Soil–vegetation associations have been understudied in tropical dry forests when compared to the amount of extant research on this issue in tropical wet forests. Recent studies assert that vegetation in tropical dry forests is highly heterogeneous and that soil variability may be a contributing factor. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between soil variables and vegetation structure and composition between 2 dry-forest types, plateau and depression forests, considered distinct by prior vegetation studies performed on Mona Island. Depression-forest sites are of particular...

As part of an experimental study of using controlled goat grazing to manage winter habitat of the Kirtland’s warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii), an endangered Nearctic neotropical migratory bird, we evaluated diet preferences of domesticated goats within early successional subtropical dry forest in The Bahamas. We expected goats would show a low preference for two plants (Lantana involucrata, Erithalis fruticosa) important to the bird’s winter diet and that occur in abundance in goat-grazed areas throughout the region. Contrary to our expectations, the plants were among a set of species,...

Intense hurricanes disturb many tropical forests, but the key mechanisms driving post-hurricane forest changes are not fully understood. In Puerto Rico, we used a replicated factorial experiment to determine the mechanisms of forest change associated with canopy openness and organic matter (debris) addition. Cascading effects from canopy openness accounted for most of the shifts in the forest biota and biotic processes, which included increased plant recruitment and richness, as well as the decreased abundance and diversity of several animal groups. Canopy opening decreased litterfall and...

Los moluscos terrestres son un grupo altamente diverso cuyo trabajo investigativo en Nicaragua ha sido mayoritariamente en la vertiente del Pacífico de Nicaragua. Evaluar el potencial de estas especies como indicadores de la perdida de la masa boscosa así como de su recuperación ayudará el impacto de las actividades humanas en esta biota de escasa movilidad. La colectas de conchas y especímenes fué realizada en bosques húmedos, nubosos y secos en los departamentos de Rivas y Jinotega en hábitats específicos dentro de la matrix del paisaje. Las identificaciones a posteriori fueron hechas...