Total, foliar, and reproductive fine litter production for up to 38 years for four old-growth forests in central Panama

Forests sequester a substantial portion of anthropogenic carbon emissions. Many open questions concern how. We address two of these questions. Has leaf and fine litter production changed? And what is the contribution of old-growth forests? We address these questions with long-term records (≥10 years) of total, reproductive, and especially foliar fine litter production from 32 old-growth forests. We expect increases in forest productivity associated with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and, in cold climates, with rising temperatures.
We evaluate the statistical power of our analysis using simulations of known temporal trends parameterized with sample sizes (number of years) and levels of interannual variation observed for each record. Statistical power is inadequate to detect biologically plausible trends for records lasting less than 20 years. Modest interannual variation characterizes fine litter production. More variable phenomena will require even longer records to e..., The data are dry masses of material collected by litter traps. The litter traps are open, 1-mm mesh bags supported 80 to 100 cm above the ground by PVC frames. We collect fallen material from traps each week at three sites (named BCI_Inceptisol, BCI_FDP, and BPSL) and each month at the final site (Gigante), Table 1 below provides site descriptions. We oven dry the collected material to constant mass at 60°C. We then separate and determine the dry mass of leaves, reproductive material, fine wood (< 2 cm diameter), and unidentifiable material or \"dust\".   
We summed the data over censuses within each year for each trap and present the sums by year and trap. Units are Mg ha-1 yr-1. Years begin with the first census at each site and run from November 1985 through October 2023 for the BCI_Inceptisol site, May 1997 through April 2024 for the BPSL site, July 1998 through June 2023 for the Gigante site, and May 2013 through April 2024 for the BCI_FDP site. Fine litter fall is at its annual l..., , # Total, foliar, and reproductive fine litter production for up to 38 years for four old-growth forests in central Panama

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z8w9ghxk2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.z8w9ghxk2)

The data set contains total, foliar, and reproductive fine litter production for four old-growth forests in central Panama. The data were collected with litter traps (see Methods).

## Description of the data and file structure

The data consist of total, foliar, and reproductive fine litter production for four old-growth forests in central Panama. Table 1 presents site descriptions.

The data are in one tab delimited file with 4415 rows and six columns. Each row holds data for a unique combination of the variables site, year, and trap. The six variables (columns), their definitions, and permissible values follow:

site: Site names. The four values are BCI_Inceptisol, BCI_FDP, BPSL, and Gigante.
year: Calendar year. Values are 1985-2023 for the site BCI_Inceptisol, 2013-2023 for BCI_...