Sub-Canopy Temperature Dynamics of a Native Tree Plantation from a Lowland Tropical Rainforest in Costa Rica

With urbanization encroaching upon forestlands, characterizing microclimates in secondary forests will be important for the sustainable management of microclimates in agroforestry systems. We used micro-sensors to characterize changes in temperature at different heights in the sub-canopy of both secondary forest and 15-year-old agroforestry plots. Results show that while agroforestry plots had different temperature profiles from the secondary forest, the monoculture plot (consisting of Pentaclethra macroloba) had temperatures similar to the profile found in the secondary forest. This suggests that the replication of temperature profiles in a secondary forest may be independent of the number of tree species in a plot (e.g. polyculture), but may instead depend on the density of a given trees species. These findings further suggest that characterizing temperature microclimates in secondary forests can serve to improve the ecological sustainability of agro-forestry systems.