Tree functional traits as predictors of microburst-associated treefalls in tropical wet forests

On 19 May 2018 a microburst caused 600 isolated forest gaps in a Costa Rican tropical forest. We surveyed fallen and standing trees within gaps to determine if certain variables are associated with treefalls. Our results highlight considerations for future research to understand the impacts of microbursts in tropical forests. Our results show that at the scale and locality of our study, treefall vulnerability to microbursts and characteristics of fall events are independent of the biomechanical and biophysical measurements that we took. We recommend that future studies on microbursts build from the measurements we took in this study to include observations at the individual tree, forest community, and forest landscape scales.