Condit et al.: Growth and Mortality of tropical tree species

Growth and mortality rates were calculated for all species in the 25 hectare forest plot established in Yasuni, Ecuador since 1995 by the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and the University of Aarhus in Denmark. The plot is located in an aseasonal evergreen wet forest in lowland Amazon. All trees greater than or equal to 1 cm diameter at breast height were measured and tagged by 1999. A second census was completed from October 2002 through December 2003. Relative growth rates were calculated for each individual tree using log transformed diameters, annualized by the time interval between census measurements, then averaged within species. Outliers were excluded: stems that grew greater than 75 mm per year or shrunk more than 25% of their initial dbh. The mortality rate constants were calculated using the number of trees alive in the first census, number of survivors in the second census, averaged over the time interval.