Treesearch

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 Management System data can be observed. Future research is recommended to better understand the nature of these differences. While there is a general lack of available statistical data on forest fires in the...

By definition the HELP approach involves the active participation of individuals from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, including representatives of industry, academics, natural resource managers, and local officials and community leaders. While there is considerable enthusiasm and support for the integrated HELP approach, a central problem for all HELP basins is how to effectively engage individuals and groups with few, if any financial resources. In the Luquillo HELP project we have managed this issue by focusing our efforts on holding small, public meetings and workshops with...

Tropical forests are characterized by diverse assemblages of plant and animal species compared to temperate forests. Corollary to this general rule is that most tree species, whether valued for timber or not, occur at low densities (

Prized for their dense, rot-resistant wood, Tabebuia impetiginosa and T. serratifolia (vernacular name = ipeˆ ) are among the most valuable Amazonian timbers. We analyzed the geographical extent, spread and trajectory of ipeˆ logging in Brazilian Amazonia, and evaluated harvest pressure on this forest resource. We also examine Tabebuia population response to reduced-impact logging, a more ecologically benign alternative to destructive conventional harvest practices in Amazonia. Based on eight years of population monitoring at multiple sites in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, we project...

Tropical dry and deciduous forest comprises as much as 42% of the world’s tropical forests, but has received far less attention than forest in wet tropical areas. Land use change threatens to greatly reduce the extent of dry forest that is known to contain high levels of plant and animal diversity. Forest fragmentation may further endanger arboreal mammals that play principal role in the dispersal of large seeded fruits, plant community assembly and diversity in these systems. Data on the spatial arrangement and extent of dry forest and other land cover types is greatly needed to enhance...

Studies have documented biodiversity losses due to intensification of coffee management (reduction in canopy richness and complexity). Nevertheless, questions remain regarding relative sensitivity of different taxa, habitat specialists, and functional groups, and whether implications for biodiversity conservation vary across regions.We quantitatively reviewed data from ant, bird, and tree biodiversity studies in coffee agroecosystems to address the following questions: Does species richness decline with intensification or within individual vegetation characteristics? Are there significant...

Secondary forests are becoming increasingly widespread in the tropics, but our understanding of how secondary succession affects carbon (C) cycling and C sequestration in these ecosystems is limited. We used a well-replicated 80-year pasture to forest successional chronosequence and primary forest in Puerto Rico to explore the relationships among litterfall, litter quality, decomposition, and soil C pools. Litterfall rates recovered rapidly during early secondary succession and averaged 10.5 (± 0.1 SE) Mg/ha/y among all sites over a 2-year period. Although forest plant community composition...

Current information on land cover, forest type and forest structure for the Virgin Islands is critical to land managers and researchers for accurate forest inventory and ecological monitoring. In this study, we use cloud free image mosaics of panchromatic sharpened Landsat ETM+ images and decision tree classification software to map land cover and forest type for the Virgin Islands, illustrating a low cost, repeatable mapping approach. Also, we test if coarse-resolution discrete lidar data that are often collected in conjunction with digital orthophotos are useful for mapping forest...

We have developed three land use regions for Puerto Rico: Urban, Suburban, and Rural (Gould et al. 2008; Martinuzzi et al. 2007). These three regions can also be considered urban, densely-populated rural, and sparsely-populated rural or as urban and wildland with a wildland-urban interface. The suburban use is the most dynamic in terms of population growth and land cover change. Developed surfaces refer to built-up and non-vegetated areas that result from human activity. These areas were identified using remote sensing techniques to analyze a mosaic of Landsat ETM+ satellite images from...