Mortality and recruitment of trees in a tropical rain forest of Choco (Colombia)

A Rates of mortality and recruitment of trees were calculated in a permanent research plot established in the tropical wet forest. The study was based on two measurements, one was done in 1998 and the other in 2005, in which were measured the diameter (DBH) of trees with DBH>10 cm and surveyed dead and recruited trees. We also determined the type of mortality, the mortality and exponential recruitment coefficient, the aboveground biomass (AB) and the mean life of the forest. In the first census 709 individuals were recorded and 710 in the second one. The mean annual mortality rate of trees was 1.39% and the exponential mortality coefficient was 1.41%; the most common types of mortality were uprooting and snags. Annual recruitment rate was 1.2% and the exponential rate of recruitment was 1.19%. Mean life of this forest was estimated in 58.6 years. The AB was of 237.31 t ha-1 in the year 1998, and in the 2005 was of 259.9 t ha-1. The recruited individuals presented AB of 5.08 t ha-1, and the dead of 17.72 t ha-1; the increment of AB in survivors was 30.97 t ha-1 average. Similarity of number of individuals between measurements, as well as in the other parameters evaluated, suggest a possible balance between mortality and recruitment of this forest. Based on the results of this study, we could no reject the hypothesis of dynamic equilibrium of this tropical wet forest.