Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

424 Pages·1995·14.478 MB·English

by  Lawrence S. Hamilton, James O. Juvik, F. N. Scatena (auth.), Lawrence S. Hamilton, James O. Juvik, F. N. Scatena (eds.)

Ecological Studies, Vol. 110
Analysis and Synthesis
Edited by
O.L. Lange, Wiirzburg, FRG
H.A. Mooney, Stanford, USA
H. Remmert, Marburg, FRGt
Ecological Studies
Volumes published since 1989 are listed at the back of this book.
Lawrence S. Hamilton
James O. Juvik
F. N. Scatena
Editors
Tropical~ontane
Cloud Forests
With 102 illustrations
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg London Paris
Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona Budapest
Lawrence Hamilton F. N. Scatena
Islands and Highlands International Institute of
Environmental Consultancy Tropical Forestry
RR #1, Box l685A USDA Forest Service
Hinesburg, VT 05461 Rio Piedras, PR 00928
USA USA
o.
James Juvik
Department of Geography
University of Hawaii, Hilo
Hilo, HI 96720
USA
=1=
EAST-WEST CENTER
~
PROGRAM ON ENVIRONMENT
.r... nm
~
International Hydrological Programme International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tropical montane cloud forests / Lawrence S. Hamilton, James o. Juvik,
and F. N. Scatena, editors.
p. cm. - (Ecological studies; v. 110)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-1-4612-7564-0
l. Cloud forest ecology. 2. Cloud forests. 3. Mountain ecology
Tropics. 1. Hamilton, Lawrence S. II. Juvik, James O.
m. Scatena, F. N. IV. Series.
QH54l.5.C63T76 1994 94-12683
574.5'2642-ilc20
Printed on acid-free paper.
An earlier version of this book was published by the East-West Center.
@1995 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995
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9 876 543 2 I
ISBN-13:978-1-4612-7564-0 e-ISBN-13:978-1-4612-2500-3
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-2500-3
In Memory of Alwyn Gentry
The editors dedicate these proceedings to Dr. Alwyn Gentry, a participant in
the symposium and a stalwart champion for tropical cloud forest conserva
tion. His untimely death in an aircraft crash in Ecuador occurred as this pub
lication was being edited.
Preface
Until relatively recently the valuable tropical montane cloud forests (hereaf
ter usually referred to as TMCFs) of the world had scarcely come under the
assaults experienced by the downslope montane and lowland forests. TMCFs
are not hospitable environments for human occupation, and their remoteness
(except in places near Andean high mountain settlements and in the Ethiopian
Highlands) and difficult terrain have given them de facto protection. The ad
jacent upper montane rain forests have indeed been under assault for timber,
fuelwood, and for conversion to grazing and agriculture for many decades,
even centuries in the Andes, but true cloud forest has only come under ex
ploitation as these lower elevational resources have disappeared. They have
also been "nibbled" at from above where there have been alpine grasslands
under grazing pressure. Increasingly now, however, these cloud forest eco
systems are being fragmented, reduced, and disturbed at an alarming rate. It
is now becoming recognized that steps must be taken rapidly to increase our
understanding of TMCF and to achieve their conservation, because:
their water-capture function is extremely important to society;
• their species endemism is high;
they serve as refugia for endangered species being marginalized in these
environments by increasingly transformed lower elevation ecosystems;
they are relatively little studied; yet, their value to science is extremely
high;
they have low resilience to disturbance;
vii
viii Preface
and many other reasons, which will be discussed subsequently in this publi
cation.
Concern over the need for pulling together much of the available knowl
edge about TMCF prompted us to organize and implement the symposium
that produced the material presented in this proceedings.
We acknowledge a debt to the publication Cloud Forests in the Humid
Tropics by Thomas Stadtmiiller (Tokyo: United Nations University, and
Turriabla, Costa Rica: Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y
Ensenafiza, 1987), which presented the subject's first bibliographic review at
the global level. In this first worldwide symposium on TMCF, we aspired to
bring together members of the scientific community carrying on investiga
tions in these ecosystems and some of the managers of these areas. This was
held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 31 May to 5 June 1993. While we indeed
fell short of our goal (particularly in securing representation from African
research) mainly due to funding limitations and busy schedules of potential
participants, we have, we believe, assembled a substantial sample and have
produced what can loosely be called a global state-of-the-knowledge review.
The "core" group of symposium contributors and participants are listed fol
lowing the table of contents. We express our gratitude to them for sharing
their research, their experience, and their time. We are especially grateful that
the World Wide Fund for Nature (International), through Adam Markham,
brought a small group together for a mini-symposium that was incorporated
into our larger activity. This group focused on the potential role ofTMCFs as
indicators of global climate change. Several members of this group participated
substantially in our deliberations.
The publication that follows largely consists of the symposium/workshop
output:
1. An introduction and synthesis chapter based on discussions in the work
shop and material selected from the papers. A definition ofTMCF is pro
posed. The annex in the introductory chapter lists known locations of
TMCF.
2. A set of maps for the global regions: Oceania, Central America, and the
Caribbean, SouthAmerica,Africa, and South/Southeast Asia, showing the
approximate locations of TMCF sites still known to exist by symposium
participants. We hope that this will be the start of a more complete loca
tion map for these ecosystems. This information has been given to the
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC). Readers of this publi
cation who know of other TMCF sites are urged to send information to the
Habitat/GIS Unit, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219 Huntington
Road, Cambridge CB3 ODL, United Kingdom.
3. Three "overview" papers on TMCFs-the first, a general status report (by
Doumenge et al.); the second, a review of the state-of-knowledge on TMCF
hydrology and soils (by Bruijnzeel and Proctor); and the third, a global
survey of cloud forest avifauna (by Long).
Preface
IX
4. A series of papers (in alphabetical order by senior author's name) dealing
both with research and management. The literature cited in these papers
has not been standardized in order to expedite publication of these pro
ceedings.
5. A bibliography for TMCF, which we hope will be of value to researchers
and managers. Send any additional citations (in the same format) to Fred
Scatena, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, U.S. Forest Servioe,
Call Box 25000, Rio Piedras 00928, Puerto Rico, USA.
We wish to acknowledge a few of the many individuals who helped to
make the symposium and this publication possible. At the East-West Center,
Senior Program Officer June Kuramoto receives the heartfelt thanks of all
participants for her cheerful, effective, and often frustrating work in the lo
gistics of financial support and travel that enabled most participants to attend
the symposium. EWC Senior Editor Helen Takeuchi and Publications Assis
tant Dan Bauer provided their usual competent and laborious services in tech
nical editing and formatting, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. We
are also grateful to Kersten Johnson of the East-West Center for her assis
tance. Secretaries Tammy Jones and Gidget Tsui were indispensable in working
on the various manuscripts. Any editorial errors in the publication are attrib
utable to us, rather than to this fine support staff. At the International Institute
of Tropical Forestry, Dr. Whendee Silver and Samuel Moya provided valu
able work on both the symposium and the publication. At the meeting site,
Helen Nuncie was a major force for sanity and helpfulness. Finally, we thank
the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme for its financial and moral
support for this venture.
Lawrence S. Hamilton
James o. Juvik
F. N. Scatena
Contents
Preface vii
Contributors xv
1 The Puerto Rico Tropical Cloud Forest Symposium:
Introduction and Workshop Synthesis
Lawrence S. Hamilton, James O. Juvik, and F. N. Scatena
2 Tropical Montane Cloud Forests:
Conservation Status and Management Issues 24
Charles Doumenge, Don Gilmour, Manuel Ruiz Perez, and
Jill Blockhus
3 Hydrology and Biogeochemistry of Tropical Montane Cloud
Forests: What Do We Really Know? 38
L. A. Bruijnzeel and J. Proctor
4 The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests
for Endemic and Threatened Birds 79
Adrian J. Long
5 Ecology and Conservation of the Argentine Montane Forest 107
Alejandro Diego Brown
xi
xii Contents
6 The Role of GIS in Evaluating Contour-Based Limits
of Cloud Forest Reserves in Honduras 116
Richard Campanella
7 Reforestation with the Native Tree Alnus acuminata:
Effects on Phytodiversity and Species Richness
in an Upper Montane Rain Forest Area of Colombia 125
Jaime Cavelier
8 The Montane Cloud Forest in Southern Brazil 138
Daniel de Barcellos Falkenberg and Julio Cesar Voltolini
9 Cloud Forest, the Massenerhebung Effect,
and Ultraviolet Insolation 150
J. R. Flenley
10 Some Low Elevation Fog Forests of Dry Environments:
Applications to African Paleoenvironments 156
Alain Gioda, Jean Maley, Roberto Espejo Guasp, and
Andres Acosta Baladon
11 Relationships Between Rainfall, Cloud-Water Interception,
and Canopy Throughfall in a Hawaiian Montane Forest 165
James O. Juvik and Dennis Nullet
12 Biophysical Conditions of the Montane Cloud Forests
of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia 183
Kanehiro Kitayama
13 The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forest
for Preserving Vertebrate Endemism in Peru:
The Rio Abiseo National Park as a Case Study 198
Mariella Leo
14 Cloud Forests of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda:
Research and Management Possibilities 212
Cosmo Lush
15 Conservation of Cloud Forests in Maui County
(Maui, Moloka'i, and Lana'i), Hawaiian Islands 223
Arthur C. Medeiros, Lloyd L. Loope, and Robert W. Hobdy
16 Montane Cloud Forest in the Tropical Pacific:
Some Aspects of Their Floristics, Biogeography, Ecology,
and Conservation 234
Mark D. Merlin and James O. Juvik
17 The Montane Cloud Forest and Its Gradational Changes
in Southeast Asia 254
Masahiko Ohsawa