Tropical rain forest canopy height measurements 1999 - 2018

The distribution of canopy heights in tropical rain forests directly affects carbon storage and the maintenance of biodiversity. We report here raw field data on annually-measured canopy height distributions over an old-growth tropical rain forest landscape in Costa Rica from 1999-2018. The data were taken at 231 points on a 5 x 5 m grid in 18 0.50 ha plots that were initially sited with a stratified random design across local gradients of soil nutrients and topography. In temporal duration, resampling interval and spatial extent the data are currently the most detailed available for any forested landscape. A digitized version of the data has been published (Clark, Clark and Kellner 2021) based on this database. The version published here is the definitive raw data, and in case of discrepancies between the digitized and raw version the raw data are the primary data source. The raw data also contain numerous field notes that clarify rare or odd field events that provide context for the d...