Interactions between water availability and nutrient cycling in dry tropical forests

Abstract

Current scientific and public attention on various aspects of global change has highlighted the complex relationship between climatic events and ecological function in terrestrial ecosystems. Dry tropical forests, which cover more area and are more suitable for human habitation than wet tropical forests, provide an excellent example of this interaction because they display structure and function that are closely linked to sporadic rainfall. As the distribution of dry tropical forest across the globe appears to be increasing (Brown and Lugo 1990; Cairns et al. 2000) in response to the interactions of global change and human disturbance, an understanding of the complexity of dry tropical forest ecosystems has become increasingly important.