Preliminary studies on forest structure and floristics on Volcán Barva, Costa Rica

Abstract

ABSTRACTVolcán Barva, Costa Rica, has on its northern slope an unbroken sequence of rain forest on volcanic parent materials from near sea level at La Selva Field Station up to its summit at 2906 m. It provides a good area to study forest changes with altitude and their causes. In the present paper we describe the forests as a background for soil and litterfall studies from 1 ha plots at each of the following altitudes: 100 m, 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, 2000 m and 2600 m. The canopy heights (with height of the highest emergent in parentheses) ranged from 35–40 m (45 m) at 100 m to 20–23 m (32 m) at 2600 m; basal area was least (22.7 m2) at 100 m and highest (51.2 m2) at 2600 m; the tree (≥10 cm dbh) density ranged from 391 ha–1at 500 m to 617 ha–1 at 2600 m. Most trees were identified and on samples of them we recorded presence of buttresses, lianes, skiophytic climbers, vascular epiphytes and bryophytes; and drew profile diagrams. In the classification of Whitmore (1984) the two lower plots are evergreen lowland rain forests; the other four are lower montane rain forest. Species richness was highest in the plot at 500 m, with at least 135 species of tree, and least at 2600 m, with at least 35 species. The Volcán Barva forest altitudinal sequence is briefly compared with those elsewhere.