The Puerto Rico project

This project is a cooperation together with:

Skip J. van Bloem, University of Puerto Rico, USA
Alexis Achim, Laval University, Québec, Canada
Freddie o. Perez Martinez, University of Puerto Rico, USA

References

• Bloem van SJ, Murphy PG, and Lugo AE, 2003: Subtropical dry forest trees with no apparent damage sprout following a hurricane. Tropical Ecology, 44, 137-145.
• Murphy PG, Lugo AE, 1986: Ecology of topical dry forest. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 17, 67-88.

Background

The project's aims is to analyse the processes that create the structure of the Guánica Forest. (Puerto Rico), which is unique to the West Indies in the neo-tropics. The forest is characterised by a huge number of stems (12,000 ha^-1), whereas many of them originate from multi-stemmed trees.

Studies after the Hurricane George in 1998, revealed that 32% of undamaged stems sprouted, which indicate that these events are important factor in creating the existing structure. With controlled sway experiments and turning moment measurements during storm events, we try to estimate the thresholds and the circumstances that are necessary to trigger sprouting.

Site

Guánica Forest is located along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico (17°58' N, 65°30' W) and under protection since 1917. Average annual rainfall is 860 mm and mean air temperature is 25.1° C.

Map

Photos