DOI: 10.5061/dryad.x69p8czjq
title: Phenological status of plants in the very tropical dry forests of Curaçao

description: Tropical dry plant formations comprise diverse forests found in areas that
 experience pronounced seasonal changes in precipitation. Across broad
 regions, variation in the amount and distribution of precipitation
 determine the availability of water, and thus differences in species
 composition and phenology. Within any given region hydrology and
 topographic position, and geologic substrate may underlie additional
 differences in forest attributes.  Of these three factors,
 geologic substrate is the least understood but it has been suggested that
 its influence on tropical dry forests, and more broadly speaking tropical
 forests, results from a combination of mechanisms regulating the use of
 water and nutrients. Phenological studies at population, community, and
 system levels acknowledge the significance of plan phenology for
 different ecological processes. Thus, characterizing phenological patterns
 at multiple levels of biological organization as a function of
 geologic substrate is important to assess the diversity of behaviors, and
 ultimately vulnerability of tropical dry forests to climate change. A
 study conducted in Curaçao between September of 1992 to February of 1995
 at three sites underlaing by different geologies provided a unique
 opportunity to investigate the extent to which plant phenology diverges in
 regions underlain by different geologies.
description: The phenological status of leaves, flowers, and fruits within
 Christoffelpark and neighboring Wacawa (CP) area in northwestern Curaçao
 was investigated from September of 1992 to February of 1995. The study
 targeted three geologic formations, namely Curaçao Lava (basalt; CLF; 48%
 of CP), Knip (chert, silica-rich sediments; KF; 46%), and Limestone
 (limestone; LF; 6%), and within each formations transects of variable
 length were visited to identify and tag at least 10 individuals of the
 most common species and between 1 – 8 individuals of the least common and
 rare ones. The number of individuals
 (<em>n<sub>i</sub></em>) and species
 (<em>n<sub>s</sub></em>) varied among the three
 formations [CLF (<em>n<sub>i</sub></em>=229 and
 <em>n<sub>s</sub></em>=28), KF
 (<em>n<sub>i</sub></em> =369 and
 <em>n<sub>s</sub></em>=44), and LF
 (<em>n<sub>i</sub></em> =283 and
 <em>n<sub>s</sub></em>=35)] and species could
 occur on more than one formation. Rroughly 881 individuals belonging to 69
 species were visited on a monthly basis for a total of 30 months. The
 species represent a mixture of life forms including trees, shrubs, vines,
 epiphytes, and succulents. Using the crown density method, individuals
 were assigned to a linear scale category between 0 - 4 to quantify leaf
 (expanded, flushing, senescent), flower, and fruit (unripe and ripe)
 abundance for all species except succulents.  In this approach, a value of
 1, 2, and 3 represent one quarter, half, three quarters of the crown
 density, respectively while a value of 4 indicates complete cover and a
 value of 0 no cover.  For succulents (cacti and epiphytes <em>sensu
 lato</em>) only flowers and fruits were counted, and instead of
 using the abundance scale, the absolute number of these organs was
 counted. 
description: The dataset includes missing values. For the analyses reported in
 the accompanying paper only individuals for which there were ≥27 months
 (maximum 30 months) of phenological observations were included. For
 individuals with 27-29 months of data we estimated the missing phenophase
 values by averaging the previous and following months. Three columns in
 this dataset (Include_Analysis_System, Include_Analysis_Community,
 Include_Analysis_Species) specify whether the individual should be
 included (yes, no) in the three levels of analysis. We use null across all
 variables to denote cells that do not have values.