A Research Perspective on Disturbance and Recovery of a Tropical Montane Forest

Studies of disturbance in tropical forest ecosystems have been important in developing the new paradigm that views these ecosystems as dynamic in structure and function rather than constant. Long-term investigations in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico are designed to evaluate the relative importance of the four principal types of disturbance within the forest and to analyze the importance of the biota in restoring the ecosystem after disturbance. Puerto Rico is an excellent site to conduct such investigations because of the availability of long-term weather and growth records, the detailed understanding of historical land use, and the long tradition of ecosystem research.Research is driven by the concept that the response of an ecosystem to disturbance is a function of the type, intensity, periodicity, and extent of the disturbance. Recovery is influenced by a complex interaction among the soil, biota, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, but we hypothesize that the biota plays a key role in conditioning the return to the previous level of productivity after disturbance. With increasing severity of disturbance, the role of the biota becomes more important.A patch dynamics model is being used to guide research on disturbance and regeneration at the ecosystem level. Results from this work are being linked to the landscape level of organization through simulation models generalized to each cell of a geographic information system covering the forest.