Most of the nutrients of the ecosystem are stored in the plant bio-mass, and defense mechanisms including thorns and chemical deterrents are used in order to protect the investment in new growth of the underbrush. Farmers leave fragmented tropical trees on the property that they own. These trees are left or removed at the landowners’ discretion. The trees that are left are live fences, isolated trees and riparian zones. Riparian zones are patches of secondary forest that were left to cool the water that the cattle drink from.
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Cedrela odorata L.
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Dalbergia retusa |
Isolated trees are left to provide shade for the cattle, construction, or for fire wood. The riparian zones are very thin patches with howler monkeys being the only large mammals to live within them. Some tropical dry forests in Central America occur as mosaics. These forest fragments mainly compose from mesic evergreen to deciduous forests. Most of the vegetation that is found within this biome is endemic; especially for the tropical dry forests in the neotropics.
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Sources Used:
- figure 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrela_odorata
- Buzzard, V. et all; 2016. Re-Growing a Tropical Dry Forest. Functional Ecology 30: 1006-1013
- Griscom, H.P. 2011. The Structure and Composition of a Tropical Dry Forest Landscape After Land Clearance. Sustainable Forestry 30: 756-774.
- figure 2: www.hear.org.
- http://www.worldwildlife.org/biomes/tropical-and-subtropical-dry-broadleaf-forests