Tropical dry forests distinguishing characteristic from its forest counterparts is in the name- they’re dry. Sometimes receiving as little as a few hundred centimeters of rain per year, the organisms that call this biome home have adapted in a myriad of ways. The deciduous trees shed their leaves to retain as much moisture as possible, while many animals have become wide rangers to forage for the resources they need. The most severe threat has been and continues to be human impact, namely from deforestation. Some dry forest regions retain a startling 1% of their original land area. Truly something must be done to preserve what is left, and through education, time, and planning we can conserve all the natural wonders it holds.
Abstracts
Slash-Burn Deforestation
![Picture](/uploads/9/3/8/4/93842968/bolivia-slash-burn-lo-4386225275.jpg?379)
Slash burn deforestation has broad reaching impacts, both destroying precious endangered habitat and eliminating endemic species. Its technique has been practiced for centuries and as such is the traditional form of farming for the region. With this destructive form of farming so common place and so frequent, forests are unable to regenerate at a sustainable rate, and such are quickly diminishing. With the dry forests nearly wiped out, slash and burn practices have begun to trickle into the rainforests as well. Habitat and food resources are completely wiped out, with just pioneer species remaining. Without governmental change in regulation, and education of endemic people on the local level, deforestation will continue to increase at an alarming rate. Eventually the land will be too infertile to utilize for agriculture and as such is used for industrialization and real estate, further contributing to the impacts on the forests.
Restoring the Forests
All of the current tropical dry forests in the neo-tropics have been subject to extreme deforestation and land conversion for human use. Most of the deforestation was primarily due to logging but now is due to cattle ranching. The majority of this biome can be located within the national parks within some Central and South American countries. Some countries like Panama, lack even fragmented dry forests in most regions due to the high deforestation rates. Other countries like Costa Rica are buying surrounding land for their national park expansion in the hopes of encouraging more of this biomes restoration. Most of the research done for forest restoration has only been for wet forest; which constitutes the majority of forests. However now current research is being done on dry forest restoration. This is due to tropical dry forest being depleted from 42% to now there being less and 2% remaining globally. There are multiple ways to restore this unique endemic biome which is discussed in this case study.
Protecting the Ecuadorian Capuchin
The Ecuadorian Capuchin is a critically endangered species that calls the tropical dry forests of Ecuador and Peru home. Due to deforestation, fragmentation, and parasitism its population has declined and it needs our help. To develop a plan to save this subspecies, one must learn of their distribution patterns, population sizes, social tendencies, and more. They're packed with personality and it is an understatement to say losing them would be tragic. The Ecuadorian Capuchin case study sheds light on all this information and what we can do to save them.
Sources:
- http://www.worldwildlife.org/biomes/tropical-and-subtropical-dry-broadleaf-forests
- Figure 1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bolivia_slash_%26_burn_lo_(4386225275).jpg