Floristic composition surrounding the footprint of eddy covariance and micrometeorology tower in the tropical dry forest, Tesopaco, Sonora (México)

The tropical dry forest (TDR) finds its northernmost distribution in Sonora. At 7.5 km east of Rosario de Tesopaco, a 13 m tower was installed (27.841319 N, -109.301264 W) with micrometeorological and eddy covariance measurements above the forest canopy. The tower was positioned in the center of a homogeneous terrain, ensuring the same coverage in at least 1 km in any direction.

According to Köppen’s classification, the climate is warm semiarid, with a mean annual temperature of 22.1° C and 712 mm of annual (Rosario Tesopaco Climatological Station No. 00026100, Comisión Nacional del Agua), with most of the rainfall (80%) falling during the monsoon from June to October.

A circular plot of 35.7 m of diameter was sampled to cover 1000 m2 around the micrometeorological tower in 2009 (July). One hundred and four individuals were identified based on taxonomy, and the diameter at breast height (DBH) and height were measured for each individual.