Watershed description:
The watershed is underlain by Oligocene tuffaceous and fossiliferous
sandstone bedrock, rich in calcite, and clay-rich (Smectite) soils
overlie a thick saprolite (Baille et al., 2007). BCI ranges in elevation
from 26m asl to 167 m asl, is fully forested, with what has been
characterized as a lowland seasonal tropical forest, with a mix of
deciduous and evergreen trees. Annual rainfall averages 2,580 mm, with
strong seasonality: the dry season is from December to May. BCI is one
of the most intensively studied area of the global tropics because of
the century-long presence of a research station and ongoing scientific
investigation focused mainly on terrestrial forest ecology, entomology,
animal behavior and related fields. The Lutz Creek data improve our
understanding of basic hydrological processes and inform our ongoing
research into the complex terrestrial ecosystems of the island and the
region [bibliography below]. BCI is also home to the first of what
is now a global network of more than 70 forest research plots known as
the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO, see
https://forestgeo.si.edu/ ). ForestGEO is dedicated to advancing
long-term study of the world’s forests to strengthen science capacity in
an era of rapidly changing landscapes and climate to understand and
predict forest dynamics