Luquillo LTER

The El Yunque Chronosequence plots consist of four sites, El Verde 1 (EV1), Sabana 1 (SB1), Sabana 2 (SB2), and Sabana 3 (SB3), which are located at the edges of El Yunque National Forest at sites to the south of El Verde and Sabana Field Stations.  The plots represent a range of successional stages representing areas in agriculture or recently abandoned in 1936 but reforested after 1950, and areas in agriculture or recently abandoned in 1977 and reforested since that time.  They range in size from ~0.5 to 1 ha, vary in elevation from ~150m to 550m a.s.l. and span a wide range of ages and land use histories (Table 1).

One of these plots (EV1) is south of El Verde Field Station, on Forest Service land just over the property boundary.  This area was in agriculture in 1936 but appeared forested in a 1950 aerial photograph, and there are differences in forest structure and species composition consistent with the known differences in land use history.  The other three Chronosequence sites are just south of the Sabana Field Station on Forest Service Land on the opposite side of the forest from El Verde.  One plot (SB2) is located in young secondary forest in an area immediately adjacent to an old teak plantation forest.  Another plot (SB1) is located in an area that was sparsely forested in 1936 and which appeared reforested in 1950.  The third plot in Sabana (SB3) is located in a patch of primary “tabonuco” (named for the abundance of this tree species) forest on a steep slope on the west side of the Sabana River.