Fruit Fall in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico1

Fruit fall in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) varied with forest type but averaged 600 kg/ha/yr for the 11,000 ha forest. Within a given forest type, fruit fall varied spatially and seasonally. A palm (Prestoea montana) flood plain forest averaged 560 kg/ ha/yr and individual palm fruit mass changed from season to season. Lower montane wet, or tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa ), forest had a low rate of fruit fall (332 kg/ha/yr) and strong seasonal pulses in both space and time. Fruit fall was higher in secondary forests (820 kg/ha/yr) and plantations (1418 kg/ ha/yr) than in mature tabonuco forests that normally occur in those sites. Fruit fall in the upper montane, or palo colorado (Cyrilla racemiflora), forest averaged 263 kg/ha/yr. Somewhere in the LEF there always appears to be a stand at peak rate of fruit production. Fruit fall data are used to reduce a previous estimate of forest carrying capacity for the endangered Puerto Rican parrot, Amazona vittata, from 51,000 to 2000-38,000 birds.

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