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Tropical Dry Climates

  • Chapter
Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science

Part of the book series: Tasks for Vegetation Science ((TAVS,volume 39))

Abstract

Based on the Holdridge life zone system (Holdridge 1967) approximately 111, 599, 269 km2 around the world have a climate favorable for dry forest (Leemans 1992, Figure 1). Of that area, 94% is located in the tropics. Tropical dry forests are found between the two parallels of latitude, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23°27′ N and S) where there are several months of little or no precipitation (Holdridge 1967). In general, three to seven month’s dry season duration has been quoted for seasonally dry forests (Janzen 1983; Murphy and Lugo 1986; Luttge 1997; Piperno and Pearsall 2000). The tropical dry forest ecosystem is one of the most fragile and least protected ecosystems in the world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa & Margaret E. Kalacska

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, México

    Mauricio Quesada & Kathryn E. Stoner

  3. Biology Department, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica

    Jorge A. Lobo

  4. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Pablo Arroyo-Mora

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  1. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa
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  2. Margaret E. Kalacska
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  3. Mauricio Quesada
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  4. Kathryn E. Stoner
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  5. Jorge A. Lobo
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  6. Pablo Arroyo-Mora
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Mark D. Schwartz

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Sanchez-Azofeifa, A., Kalacska, M.E., Quesada, M., Stoner, K.E., Lobo, J.A., Arroyo-Mora, P. (2003). Tropical Dry Climates. In: Schwartz, M.D. (eds) Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science. Tasks for Vegetation Science, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0632-3_9

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