Towers Forestry Plot, Long-term Vegetation Monitoring in a 1-ha old-growth Rainforest, La Selva Research Station, OTS, Sarapiquí, Heredia, Costa Rica, 2010–2020

The Towers Plot is a 1-hectare permanent vegetation plot established in 2010 under the canopy towers at La Selva Research Station, Sarapiquí, Heredia, Costa Rica. The plot was created by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) to monitor long-term changes in forest structure, composition, and dynamics in an old-growth tropical rainforest. All woody stems with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 10 cm or greater—including trees, palms, and lianas—were tagged, mapped, and measured following standardized procedures. Censuses were conducted between 2010 and 2020 to document growth, mortality, and recruitment. The dataset includes taxonomic identifications, stem diameter measurements, spatial coordinates within the plot, and metadata describing field methods and species composition. The plot was established beneath three canopy towers that had been previously constructed through the NSF-funded Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) project, NSF 0722741, which provided key infrastructure for canopy and environmental research at La Selva. This proximity created a valuable opportunity to integrate vegetation monitoring with existing environmental instrumentation. Johana Hurtado, coordinator of the Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) project at La Selva, collaborated with OTS staff in the establishment of the plot, ensuring methodological consistency with other tropical forest monitoring sites. This dataset provides a comprehensive record of woody plant diversity and forest structure in a lowland old-growth Neotropical rainforest. It supports research on forest dynamics, carbon storage, and ecosystem change. The overall monitoring project is ongoing; this data package contains observations from 2010 through 2020.