Seedling composition, growth, and dynamics in tropical rain forest, La Selva, Costa Rica (1983-1996)

Recruitment, growth, and survivorship of the regeneration stages of trees and lianas were studied in old-growth tropical rain forest at La Selva Biological Station of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), near Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Heredia Province, in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. A total of 48 permanent seedling transects each measuring 10 m x 0.5 m were established at random locations within three La Selva permanent forest inventory plots. The forest plots occupy contrasting landforms: Plot 1 (4.4 ha), old alluvial terrace; Plot 2 (4.0 ha), swamp forest and low hills; and Plot 3 (4.0 ha), steeply dissected terrain with residual volcanic soils. Seedling locations are georeferenced within the grid system of the permanent forest inventory plots, facilitating spatial analysis of seedling populations with respect to adult cohorts. Beginning in June 1983, all seedlings ≤ 0.5 m in height belonging to tree and liana species capable of reaching 10 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) at maturity were tagged, identified to species or morphospecies, mapped to the nearest cm, and measured in height to the nearest cm. Over a period of 18 months, a total of 6403 seedlings belonging to 167 species were tagged. Monitoring and re-measurement of all tagged individuals continued through November 1996. Data include 17 census dates over a period of 13.5 years. At the time of the final census, only 97 individuals (1.52% of the tagged seedlings) were still alive, representing 43 species (25.7% of the initial number). The largest surviving seedling had grown in height from 4 cm to 13 meters during the study period. This dataset on the regeneration stages in old-growth tropical rain forest in the La Selva permanent inventory plots forms a complement to the studies of long-term growth and demography of these species and assemblages at adult stages within the plots. Forest inventory data for trees and lianas ≥ 10 cm dbh in the permanent plots in which the seedling transec