Tree Diameter Growth of Three Successional Stages of Tropical Dry Forests, Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica

The northwest Pacic coast of Costa Rica was dedicated 100 years ago to cattle farming, which jeopardized fragile ecosystems within the region. In the 1970s, the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) was established to protect forest ecosystems such as the tropical dry forest (TDF), transforming this region into an open laboratory for research on natural forest restoration (Fedigan et al. 1985; Janzen 2000; Molina 2002; Calvo-Alvarado et al. 2009a). The Parque Nacional Santa Rosa (PNSR) is one of these conservation areas dedicated to safeguarding the TDFs within the ACG; but this protection also encompasses mangrove ecosystems; turtle nesting sites; and a large amount of microhabitats for mammals, reptiles, and bird species (Boza 1993; Carrillo et al. 1994; Campbell et al. 2005).