Identifying the functional traits that enable recovery after extreme events is necessary for assessing forest persistence and functioning, yet this is a difficult task because the traits mediating the responses to disturbance may vary depending on the disturbance type and over time. This study investigates the effects of traits on tree growth –for short and longer terms– in response to two vastly different extreme climatic events, droughts, and hurricanes, in a Puerto Rican forest.
Umaña, M. N. In review. The interplay of drought and hurricanes on tree recovery: insights from dynamic and weak functional responses. Forthcoming and Umana, M. (2023). Functional trait data across an elevational gradient of six tree species in El Yunque National Park, Puerto Rico in 2015 [Data set], University of Michigan - Deep Blue Data. https://doi.org/10.7302/7962-4t98
The objective of this study was to examine the existence of congruent tree growth responses to different extreme climatic events –hurricanes and drought–affecting tropical wet forests.