Recent literature

Recent papers related to tropical dry forests and savannas in the journal Biotropica:

Tabarelli, Marcelo, Ariadna V. Lopes, and Carlos A. Peres. 2008. Edge-effects Drive Tropical Forest Fragments Towards an Early-Successional System. Biotropica 40(6):657-661 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00454.x

Lebrija-Trejos, Edwin, Frans Bongers, Eduardo A. Pérez-García and Jorge A. Meave. 2008. Successional Change and Resilience of a Very Dry Tropical Deciduous Forest Following Shifting Agriculture. Biotropica 40(4):422-431 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00398.x

Poorter, Lourens and Lars Markesteijn. 2008. Seedling Traits Determine Drought Tolerance of Tropical Tree Species. Biotropica 40(3):321-331 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00380.x

Forrest Jessica L., Eric W. Sanderson, Robert Wallace, Teddy Marcelo Siles Lazzo, Luis Humberto Gómez Cerveró and Peter Coppolillo. 2008. Patterns of Land Cover Change in and Around Madidi National Park, Bolivia. Biotropica 40(3):285-294 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00382.x

Delsinne, Thibaut, Maurice Leponce, Laurence Theunis, Yves Braet, and Yves Roisin. 2008. Rainfall Influences Ant Sampling in Dry Forests. Biotropica 40(5):590-596 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00414.x

Kaminski, Lucas A. 2008. Polyphagy and Obligate Myrmecophily in the Butterfly Hallonympha paucipuncta (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) in the Neotropical Cerrado Savanna. Biotropica 40(3):390-394 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00379.x

Santos, Evanira M. R., Elizabeth Franklinand William E. Magnusson. 2008. Cost-efficiency of Subsampling Protocols to Evaluate Oribatid-Mite Communities in an Amazonian Savanna. Biotropica 40(6):728-735 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00425.x

Vieira, Letícia, Júlio N. C. Louzada and Sacha Spector. 2008. Effects of Degradation and Replacement of Southern Brazilian Coastal Sandy Vegetation on the Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Biotropica 40(6):719-727 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2008.00432.x

Recent literature

More recent literature on tropical dry forests and savannas

Martinia, Adriana M.Z., Renato A.F. Lima, Geraldo A.D.C. Franco and Ricardo R. Rodrigues. 2008. The need for full inventories of tree modes of disturbance to improve forest dynamics comprehension: An example from a semideciduous forest in Brazil. Forest Ecology and Management 255(5-6):1479-1488 doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.11.004

Ribeiroa, Natasha S., Herman H. Shugart and Robert Washington-Allen. 2008. The effects of fire and elephants on species composition and structure of the Niassa Reserve, northern Mozambique. Forest Ecology and Management 255(5-6):1626-1636 doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.11.033

Rista, Lucy, R. Uma Shaanker, E.J. Milner-Gullanda and Jaboury Ghazoul. 2008. Managing mistletoes: The value of local practices for a non-timber forest resource. Forest Ecology and Management 255(5-6):1684-1691 doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.11.030

Nouvellona, Yann, Daniel Epron, Antoine Kinana, Olivier Hamel, André Mabiala, Rémi D’Annunzio, Philippe Deleporte, Laurent Saint-André, Claire Marsden, Olivier Roupsard, Jean-Pierre Bouillet and Jean-Paul Laclau. 2008. Soil CO₂ effluxes, soil carbon balance, and early tree growth following savannah afforestation in Congo: Comparison of two site preparation treatments. Forest Ecology and Management 255(5-6):1926-1936 doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.12.026

ReForLan

ReForLan (Restoration of Forest Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Development in the Drylands of Latin America) is a new project focusing on

the restoration of dryland forest landscapes for biodiversity conservation and rural development in Latin America.

The project has received three years of funding (2007-2010) and are working in seven sites around Latin America:

1. Chiapas, Mexico
2. Central Veracuz, Mexico
3. Oaxaca, Mexico
4. Central Valley, Central Chile
5. Coastal range, Central Chile
6. Northwestern Argentina
7. Southwestern Argentina.

There's a write-up about the project in the March 2008 issue of Ecological Restoration.

Other definitions

Last year, Jeremy Bruno posted a description of dry forest at The Voltage Gate. (He has since moved to ScienceBlogs.) It's a pretty good overview - covers the main points, though I'm a tad uncertain about the assertion that erosion (post-deforestation) is higher than in rainforests.

So what is tropical dry forest?

So what is tropical dry forest? In trying to compile a list of recent dry forest-related literature that question comes to the fore. It's a very familiar question - I spent a lot of time wondering about that early in my grad school career when I thought that I should get a handle on all the literature related to tropical dry forest. (What can I say, I was ambitious naive.) Part of the problem comes from relying on Holdridge's definition - if you define dry forest in relation to precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (which basically boils down to precipitation and temperature), you end up including riparian forests and some forests dependent on ground water - forests that which resemble wetter forests in terms of physiognomy and species composition. When it boils down to it, regardless of rainfall, they don't function as dry forests. In addition, there's the issue of savannas - many savannas fall within the dry forest life zone, but if you look at them as "former" or "potential dry forest" you ignore the fact that they have been grassland for thousands and years. (Other grasslands though, are recent human creations.) Then there are areas that function as dry forest, but get too much rainfall.

In selecting literature I am trying to use broad criteria. I'm including deciduous and semi-deciduous forest even if they seem to be a bit on the wet side. I'm also including savannas. In a case like this, it's probably more useful to use a broad definition.

Recent literature

In my continuing attempt to catch up on recent literature on tropical dry forests and savannas

Oswalt, Sonja N., Thomas J. Brandeis, Christopher W. Woodall. 2008. Contribution of Dead Wood to Biomass and Carbon Stocks in the Caribbean: St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Biotropica 40(1):20–27 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00343.x

Bellairs, Sean M., Donald C. Franklin, Nicholas J. Hogarth. 2008. A Tropical, Gregariously Semelparous Bamboo Shows No Seed Dormancy. Biotropica 40(1) :28–31 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00336.x

Keuroghlian, Alexine, Donald P. Eaton. 2008. Fruit Availability and Peccary Frugivory in an Isolated Atlantic Forest Fragment: Effects on Peccary Ranging Behavior and Habitat Use. Biotropica 40(1) :62–70 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00351.x

Maffei, Leonardo, Andrew J. Noss. 2008. How Small is too Small? Camera Trap Survey Areas and Density Estimates for Ocelots in the Bolivian Chaco . Biotropica 40(1) :71–75 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00341.x

Martins, Eduardo Guimarães, Márcio Silva Araújo, Vinícius Bonato, Sérgio Furtado dos Reis. 2008. Sex and Season Affect Individual-Level Diet Variation in the Neotropical Marsupial Gracilinanus microtarsus (Didelphidae). Biotropica 40(1) :132–135 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00319.x

Casandra Reyes-García, Howard Griffiths, Emmanuel Rincón, Pilar Huante. 2008. Niche Differentiation in Tank and Atmospheric Epiphytic Bromeliads of a Seasonally Dry Forest
Biotropica 40(2) :168–175 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00359.x

Philip D. Round, George A. Gale (2008) Changes in the Status of Lophura Pheasants in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand: A Response to Warming Climate?
Biotropica 40(2) :225–230 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00363.x

Reuber A. Brandão, Alexandre F. B. Araújo (2008) Changes in Anuran Species Richness and Abundance Resulting from Hydroelectric Dam Flooding in Central Brazil
Biotropica 40(2) :263–266 doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00356.x

Recent literature

Some recent literature published on tropical dry forests and savannas.

Poorter, Lourens, William Hawthorne, Frans Bongers, Douglas Sheil. 2008. Maximum size distributions in tropical forest communities: relationships with rainfall and disturbance. Journal of Ecology doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2008.01366.x (early online)

Klop, Erik and Janneke van Goethem. 2008. Savanna fires govern community structure of ungulates in Bénoué National Park, Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24(1):39-47 doi: 10.1017/S0266467407004609

de Lima, Renato A. Ferreira, Adriana M. Zanforlin Martini, Sérgius Gandolfi and Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues. 2008. Repeated disturbances and canopy disturbance regime in a tropical semi-deciduous forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24(1):85-93 doi: 10.1017/S0266467407004658

González-Ruiz, Teresa, Víctor J. Jaramillo, Juan José Peña Cabriales and Arturo Flores. 2008. Nodulation dynamics and nodule activity in leguminous tree species of a Mexican tropical dry forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24(1):107-110 doi: 10.1017/S0266467407004634

Castanho, Camila de Toledo and Alexandre Adalardo de Oliveira. 2008. Relative effect of litter quality, forest type and their interaction on leaf decomposition in south-east Brazilian forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24(2):149-156 doi: 10.1017/S0266467407004749

Janos, David P., John Scott and David M. J. S. Bowman. 2008. Temporal and spatial variation of fine roots in a northern Australian Eucalyptus tetrodonta savanna. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24(2):177-188 doi: 10.1017/S0266467408004860