The presence of Dry Forest Racer, Masticophis mentovarius (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) (Squamata, Colubridae), in the Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica

Masticophis mentovarius (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) occurs at low and moderate elevations in Lowland Dry Forest and Premontane Moist Forest. This species is known in Costa Rica mainly from the dry lowlands of the northwest. Here we report the presence of M. mentovarius at the Tropical Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, at 1275 m a.s.l. The new records provide information on the true limits of the distribution of species and may represent expansion of the species’ range due to environmental changes caused by global climate change.

Differing Trade-Off Patterns of Tree Vegetative Organs in a Tropical Cloud Forest

Functional trait ecology demonstrates the significance of the leaf economics spectrum in understanding plants’ trade-off between acquisitive and conservative resource utilization. However, whether trait variations of different vegetative organs are coordinated and whether the plant economics spectrum is characterized by more than one vegetative organ remain controversial. To gain insights into these questions, within a tropical cloud forest in Hainan Island, a total of 13 functional traits of 84 tree species were analyzed here, including leaf, stem and root traits. By using standardized major axis (SMA) regression and principal components analysis, we examined the trait variations and correlations for deciphering plants’ trade-off pattern. We found decreases of leaf phosphorus content, leaf nitrogen content and specific leaf area and increases of leaf mass per unit area (LMA), wood density and leaf thickness along the first principal component, while there were decreases of specific root length and specific root area and increases of root tissue density along the second principal component. Root phosphorus and nitrogen contents were significantly positively associated with the phosphorus and nitrogen contents of both stem and leaf. Wood density was significantly positively associated with LMA and leaf thickness, but negatively associated with leaf thickness and specific leaf area. Our results indicate that, in the tropical cloud forest, there is a “fast–slow” economic spectrum characterized by leaf and stem. Changes of nutrient trait are coordinated, whereas the relationships of morphological traits varied independently between plant above- and below-ground parts, while root nutrient traits are decoupled from root morphological traits. Our findings can provide an insight into the species coexistence and community assembly in high-altitude tropical forests.

Smardaea isoldae sp. nov. from a tropical cloud forest in Mexico

Smardaea isoldae is described from Sierra Madre Oriental, Hidalgo State, Mexico. The new species is distinguished by its olivaceous coloration, habit on dead wood, and tropical cloud forest habitat. The holotype is deposited in ENCB Herbarium. A key to Smardaea species is presented.

Comparing the success of active and passive restoration in a tropical cloud forest landscape: A multi-taxa fauna approach

Tropical forest restoration initiatives are becoming more frequent worldwide in an effort to mitigate biodiversity loss and ecosystems degradation. However, there is little consensus on whether an active or a passive restoration strategy is more successful for recovering biodiversity because few studies make adequate comparisons. Furthermore, studies on animal responses to restoration are scarce compared to those on plants, and those that assess faunal recovery often focus on a single taxon, limiting the generalization of results. We assessed the success of active (native mixed-species plantations) and passive (natural regeneration) tropical cloud forest restoration strategies based on the responses of three animal taxa: amphibians, ants, and dung beetles. We compared community attributes of these three taxa in a 23-year-old active restoration forest, a 23-year-old passive restoration forest, a cattle pasture, and a mature forest, with emphasis on forest-specialist species. We also evaluated the relationship between faunal recovery and environmental variables. For all taxa, we found that recovery of species richness and composition were similar in active and passive restoration sites. However, recovery of forest specialists was enhanced through active restoration. For both forests under restoration, similarity in species composition of all faunal groups was 60–70% with respect to the reference ecosystem due to a replacement of generalist species by forest-specialist species. The recovery of faunal communities was mainly associated with canopy and leaf litter covers. We recommend implementing active restoration using mixed plantations of native tree species and, whenever possible, selecting sites close to mature forest to accelerate the recovery of tropical cloud forest biodiversity. As active restoration is more expensive than passive restoration, both strategies might be used in a complementary manner at the landscape level to compensate for high implementation costs.