Site: Luquillo
Country: USA
Site PI: Jill Thompsons, Jess Zimmerman, María Uriarte
Data Type:
Availabilty: Immediate
About Data: The Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (LFDP) is located within the U.S. El Yunque National Forest, coterminous with the Luquillo Experimental Forest, in the municipality of Río Grande, in northeastern Puerto Rico. The El Yunque National Forest encompasses three mountain peaks, the highest of which is 1065 meters above sea level. At approximately 360m elevation, The LFDP lies within the “tabonuco forest” zone, a vegetation type named for the abundance of the large tree, Dacryodes excelsa that is found mostly below 600 meters in elevation. Other dominant species in this forest type include Sloanea berteroana, Manilkara bidentata, Guarea guidonia, Prestoea acuminata var. montana, and Buchenavia tetraphylla. The climate of the area around the LFDP is classified as subtropical wet according to the Holdridge life zone system, and is tropical montane wet forest according to Walsh's system (Thompson et al. 2002). The LFDP is 16 hectares in area, 320m east-west by 500m south-north. Land use history varies throughout the plot. Some selective logging has taken place in the southern portion, but it has never been extensively felled. In portions of the northeast section, less than 10 percent of forest remained in 1936 due to agriculture, with other areas experiencing disturbance due to logging and agriculture in the early 20th century. These areas are dominated by Casearia arborea and other secondary forest species. The forest also experiences disturbance due to hurricanes, the most destructive in recent times being Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Hurricane Georges also struck the island in 1998. Today the forest canopy has regrown extensively and many shrubs and treelets have experienced high mortality due to decreasing light availability in the forest understory.