Data from: Estimation of aboveground net primary productivity in secondary tropical dry forests using the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford approach (CASA) model

Although tropical dry forests (TDFs) cover roughly 42% of all tropical
ecosystems, extensive deforestation and habitat fragmentation pose
important limitations for their conservation and restoration worldwide. In
order to develop conservation policies for this endangered ecosystem, it
is necessary to quantify their provision of ecosystems services such as
carbon sequestration and primary production. In this paper we explore the
potential of the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford approach (CASA) for estimating
aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in a secondary TDF located at
the Santa Rosa National Park (SRNP), Costa Rica. We calculated ANPP using
the CASA model (ANPPCASA) in three successional stages (early,
intermediate, and late). Each stage has a stand age of 21 years, 32 years,
and 50+ years, respectively, estimated as the age since land abandonment.
Our results showed that the ANPPCASA for early, intermediate, and late
successional stages were 3.22 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, 8.90 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, and
7.59 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, respectively, which are comparable with rates of
carbon uptake in other TDFs. Our results indicate that key variables that
influence ANPP in our dry forest site were stand age and precipitation
seasonality. Incident photosynthetically active radiation and temperature
were not dominant in the ANPPCASA. The results of this study highlight the
potential of the use of remote sensing techniques and the importance of
incorporating successional stage in accurate regional TDF ANPP estimation.