Growth Dynamics of Trees in Tropical Mountain Ecosystems

Abstract

Tropical mountain rainforests are commonly regarded as a stable ecosystemin which life processes face almost invariable environmental conditions.However, as discussed for the eastern Cordillera of Ecuador in Chapter8, even the perhumid tropics experience a more or less pronouncedseasonality of precipitation patterns. Intra annual fluctuationsof temperature are small and usually do not depart more than 1–3K from the annual mean. In contrast, diurnal temperature variationsof 5.1 K and 11.1 K were recorded at elevations of 2670m a.s.l. and1950m a.s.l., respectively. Short-term climate irregularities, e.g.during periods with prevailing westerly winds, can alter the normalclimate conditions considerably and thus are of great significancefor plant life. Furthermore, tremendous short-distance variationsof the climate are caused by effects of altitude and topography (Richter2003).