ABSTRACT
Mauricio Quesada, Mariana Álvarez-Añorve, Luis Ávila-Cabadilla, Alicia Castillo, Martha Lopezaraiza-Mikel, Silvana Martén-Rodríguez, Victor Rosas-Guerrero, Roberto Sáyago, Gumersindo Sánchez-Montoya, José Miguel Contreras-Sánchez, Francisco Balvino-Olvera, Sergio Ricardo Olvera-García, Sergio Lopez-Valencia, and Natalia Valdespino-Vázquez
The current status and rates of conversion of mature tropical forests indicate that these habitats will eventually disappear, leaving behind a complex landscape matrix of agricultural elds and forest patches under different levels of succession. Tropical dry forests (TDFs) are not an exception, and the current management derived from human activities will clearly result in the complete loss of this habitat worldwide (Quesada and Stoner 2004; Miles et al. 2006; Quesada et al. 2009). The TDFs have been extensively transformed and occupied by urban and agricultural areas at signicantly higher rates than
CONTENTS
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 17 2.2 Ecosystem Structure and Composition .................................................... 19
2.2.1 Species Richness .............................................................................. 20 2.2.2 Species Density ................................................................................ 21 2.2.3 Species Composition ....................................................................... 21 2.2.4 Vegetation Structure ........................................................................ 24
2.3 Phenology ..................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 Leang ............................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Flowering and Fruiting ................................................................... 27
2.4 Successional Changes in Vertebrate Communities .................................28 2.4.1 Birds ...................................................................................................28 2.4.2 Bats .....................................................................................................28
