Expanding tropical forest monitoring into Dry Forests: the DRYFLOR protocol for permanent plots

• Author(s): Moonlight, Peter W. ; Banda-R, Karina ; Phillips, Oliver L. ; Dexter, Kyle G. ; Pennington, R. Toby ; Baker, Tim R. ; Lima, Haroldo C. de ; Fajardo, Laurie ; González-M., Roy ; Linares-Palomino, Reynaldo ; Lloyd, Jon ; Nascimento, Marcelo ; Prado, Darién ; Quintana, Catalina ; Riina, Ricarda ; Rodríguez, Gina Mylee ; Villela, Dora Maria ; Aquino, Ana Carla M. M. ; Arroyo, Luzmila ; Bezerra, Cidney ; Brunello, Alexandre Tadeu ; Brienen, Roel J. W. ; Cardoso, Domingos ; Chao, Kuo-Jung ; Coutinho, Ítalo Antônio Cotta ; Cunha, John ; Domingues, Tomas ; Santo, Mário Marcos do Espírito ; Feldpausch, Ted R. ; Fernandes, Moabe Ferreira ; Goodwin, Zoë A. ; Jiménez, Eliana María ; Levesley, Aurora ; Lopez-Toledo, Leonel ; Marimon, Beatriz ; Miatto, Raquel C. ; Mizushima, Marcelo ; Monteagudo, Abel ; Moura, Magna Soelma Beserra de ; Murakami, Alejandro ; Neves, Danilo ; Chequín, Renata Nicora ; Oliveira, Tony César de Sousa ; Oliveira, Edmar Almeida de ; Queiroz, Luciano P. de ; Pilon, Alan ; Ramos, Desirée Marques ; Reynel, Carlos ; Rodrigues, Priscyla M. S. ; Santos, Rubens ; Särkinen, Tiina ; Silva, Valdemir Fernando da ; Souza, Rodolfo M. S. ; Vasquez, Rodolfo ; Veenendaal, Elmar
• Date: 2021
• Origin: Oasisbr
• Subject(s): Floristics; Ong term plots; Tropical dry forests; Vegetation dynamics; Vegetation structure
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: Portuguese

Description

Understanding of tropical forests has been revolutionized by monitoring in permanent plots. Data from global plot networks have transformed our knowledge of forests’ diversity, function, contribution to global biogeochemical cycles, and sensitivity to climate change. Monitoring has thus far been concentrated in rain forests. Despite increasing appreciation of their threatened status, biodiversity, and importance to the global carbon cycle, monitoring in tropical dry forests is still in its infancy. We provide a protocol for permanent monitoring plots in tropical dry forests. Expanding monitoring into dry biomes is critical for overcoming the linked challenges of climate change, land use change, and the biodiversity crisis.