LTREB: Dynamics of Stream Ecosystem Responses Across Gradients of Reforestation and Changing Climate in a Tropical Dry Forest

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The scientific and educational efforts in this project focus on advancing our understanding of tropical streams and their watersheds through the long-term study of the local ecological impacts of large-scale climatic phenomena and forest restoration. This project establishes several small to intermediate size streams of the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. The ACG includes a wide variety of habitats that are ecologically distinct as well as interconnected, including virgin dry forest, cloud forest and rain forest. The dry forest is of importance and interest because it is a globally threatened biome that contrasts markedly from the general public perception that tropical environments are wet. It also includes deforested areas that now represent the largest forest restoration project in the tropics. ACG streams flow to both the Pacific and Caribbean and range from perennial to intermittent, warm to cool, and large to small. The research will provide insight into stream responses to the recovery and maturation of tropical dry forests, short- and long-term variation in rainfall (e.g., droughts or climate change), and short- and long-term water withdrawals for human uses (already an issue throughout the tropics). A long-term perspective is essential in addressing the research topics and hypotheses because it highlights changes over time and the environmental extremes that help define present and future tropical environments. This five-year project builds upon the Stroud Water Research Center 14-year database for ACG streams, and a significant effort will be made in management of ACG LTREB data and making data summaries available to the public via the Internet. This will strengthen the connection between the temperate and tropical sites studied by Stroud researchers (including a LTREB site in Pennsylvania), and allow students and the public around the world to observe and study conditions and activities in the seasonal dry forests of ACG.