• Corpus ID: 200076042

Forest vegetation along environmental gradients in northeastern Puerto Rico

@inproceedings{Weaver2013ForestVA,
  title={Forest vegetation along environmental gradients in northeastern Puerto Rico},
  author={Peter L. Weaver and William A. Gould},
  year={2013}
}

• P. L. Weaver, W. Gould
• Published 2013
• Environmental Science

The Luquillo Mountains in northeastern Puerto Rico rise abruptly from sea level to 1074 m at El Toro Peak in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) (Fig. 1). The simplest classification of forest types along this gradient recognized moist coastal forest surrounding the mountains, and lower and upper forests within the LEF (Little and Wadsworth 1964). During the 1940s, climax forests along the same gradient from shoreline to mountain summit were described in the Lesser Antilles as follows (Beard 1949): edaphic climax formations along the coast (i.e. swamp forest and mangrove woodland); dry evergreen formations (i.e. dry evergreen forest, evergreen bushland, and littoral woodland); seasonal formations (i.e. evergreen seasonal forest, semi-evergreen seasonal forest, and deciduous seasonal forest); rain forest; and montane formations (i.e. lower montane rain forest, montane rain forest, palm brake, and dwarf forest). The same montane formations were adopted for the LEF with local names: tabonuco forest between 150 and 600 m; colorado forest between 600 and 900 m; dwarf forest above 900 m; and palm brake on steep windward facing slopes and in drainages above 450 m (Wadsworth 1951). Six ecological life zones have also been described for northeastern Puerto Rico (Ewel and Whitmore 1973): subtropical dry forest along the coast; subtropical moist forest and subtropical wet forests surrounding the LEF; subtropical rain forest to the windward; and both lower montane wet and lower montane rain forests at higher elevations. Zonal (i.e. typical or characteristic), edaphic (e.g. palm brake), and atmospheric associations (e.g. cloud forest) are recognized Forest vegetation along environmental gradients in northeastern Puerto Rico