Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T00:43:54.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The climate of cloud forests

from Part I - General perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

By
A. Jarvis  and
M. Mulligan
Edited by
L. A. Bruijnzeel ,
F. N. Scatena  and
L. S. Hamilton
A. Jarvis
Affiliation:
International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia
M. Mulligan
Affiliation:
King's College London, UK
L. A. Bruijnzeel
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
F. N. Scatena
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
L. S. Hamilton
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the climatic conditions where cloud forests are reported. Spatial data-sets of climate, derived from the WorldClim database, were used to describe the climate in 477 cloud forest sites identified by UNEP–WCMC with 85% of the sites being found at altitudes between 400 and 2800 m.a.s.l., with an average altitude of slightly less than 1700 m. The range of altitudes at which cloud forests are found is impressive (220–5005 m). The climate of cloud forests is highly variable from site to site, with an average rainfall of c. 2000 mm year−1 and an average temperature of 17.7 °C. In addition, cloud forests are found in seasonal and aseasonal environments alike, both in terms of rainfall and temperature. There are some clear differences in the climates of cloud forests found in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia. Comparisons are made between the climate of cloud forest sites and of randomly generated sites covering forested areas throughout the montane tropics, with the aim of identifying the climatic variables most important in distinguishing cloud forests from other tropical forests. Cloud forests are found to be wetter (by 184 mm year−1 on average), cooler (by 4.2 °C on average), and less seasonally variable than other montane forests. The most statistically significant climatic differences between cloud forests and other montane forests in order of significance are: maximum temperature > mean temperature > rainfall > rainfall seasonality. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests
Science for Conservation and Management
 , pp. 39 - 56
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldrich, M., Billington, C., Edwards, M., and Laidlaw, R. (1997). A Global Directory of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests. Cambridge, UK: UNEP–WCMC.Google Scholar
Bruijnzeel, L. A. (2001). Hydrology of tropical montane cloud forests: a reassessment. Land Use and Water Resources Research 1: 1.1–1.18.Google Scholar
Bruijnzeel, L. A., and Hamilton, L. S. (2000). Decision Time for Cloud Forests, IHP Humid Tropics Programme Series No. 13. Paris: UNESCO, Amsterdam: IUCN-NL, and Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.Google Scholar
Bruijnzeel, L. A., and Proctor, J. (1995). Hydrology and biochemistry of tropical montane cloud forests: what do we really know? In Tropical Montane Cloud Forests, eds. Hamilton, L. S., Juvik, J. O., and Scatena, F. N., pp. 38–78. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruijnzeel, L. A., and Veneklaas, E. J. (1998). Climatic conditions and tropical montane forest productivity: the fog has not lifted yet. Ecology 29: 3–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruijnzeel, L. A., Waterloo, M. J., Proctor, J., Kuiters, A. T., and Kotterink, B. (1993). Hydrological observations in montane rain forests on Gunung Silam, Sabah, Malaysia, with special reference to the ‘Massenerhebung’ effect. Journal of Ecology 81: 145–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,FAO (2005). Terms and definitions for the national reporting tables for FRA 2005. Rome: FAO. Also available at www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=//docrep/007/ae156e/AE156E03.htm.Google Scholar
Frahm, J. P., and Gradstein, S. R. (1991). An altitudinal zonation of tropical rain forests using bryophytes. Journal of Biogeography 18: 669–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P. J. (1977). Control of forest growth and distribution on wet tropical mountains: with special reference to mineral nutrition. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 8: 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, L. S., Juvik, J. O., and Scatena, F. N. (eds.) (1995). Tropical Montane Cloud Forests. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hijmans, R., Cameron, S., and Parra, J. (2004). WorldClim, Version 1.2: A Square Kilometer Resolution Database of Global Terrestrial Surface Climate. Available at http://biogeo.berkeley.edu.
Hijmans, R., Cameron, S., Parra, J., Jones, P. J., and Jarvis, A. (2005). Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 25: 1965–1978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, M. (1995). Interpolating mean rainfall using thin-plate smoothing splines. International Journal of GIS 9: 305–403.Google Scholar
Jones, P. G. (1991). The CIAT Climate Database, Version 3.41, Machine Readable Dataset. Cali, Colombia: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).Google Scholar
Bastille, A., and Poole, D. (1978). On the need for a system of cloud forest parks in Middle America and the Caribbean. Environmental Conservation 5: 183–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markham, C. G. (1970). Seasonality of precipitation in the United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 60: 593–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meybeck, M., Green, P., and Vörösmarty, C. (2001). A new typology for mountains and other relief classes. Mountain Research and Development 21: 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulligan, M., and Burke, S. M. (2005). FIESTA: Fog Interception for the Enhancement of Streamflow in Tropical Areas. Available at www.ambiotek.com/fiesta/.
Nair, U. S., Asefi, S., Welch, R. M., et al. (2008). Biogeography of tropical montane cloud forests. II. Mapping of orographic cloud immersion. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 47: 2183–2197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruel, J., Mitchell, S., and Dornier, M. (2002). A GIS-based approach to map wind exposure for windthrow hazard rating. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry 19: 183–187.Google Scholar
Schröter, Ch. (1926). Das Pflanzenleben der Alpen. Zurich, Switzerland: Albert Raustein Publishers.Google Scholar
Stadtmüller, T. (1987). Cloud Forests in the Humid Tropics: A Bibliographic Review. Tokyo: The United Nations University, and Turrialba, Costa Rica: CATIE.Google Scholar
,UNEP–WCMC (2004). Database of Global Cloud Forest Data. Cambridge, UK: UNEP–WCMC.Google Scholar
,USGS (2000). Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA2000): 1-km Gridded Data. Available at http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/glcc/fao/index.asp.
,USGS (2004). Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 30 Arc Second Gridded Global Elevation Data. Available at http://srtm.usgs.gov/.
Molen, M. K., Dolman, A. J., Waterloo, M. J., and Bruijnzeel, L. A. (2006). Climate is affected more by maritime than by continental land use change: a multiple scale analysis. Global and Planetary Change 54: 128–149.Google Scholar
Steenis, C. G. G. J. (1972). The Mountain Flora of Java. Leiden, the Netherlands: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, N. (2004). The Toposcale and Topoclass AML. Available at www.wsl.ch/staff/niklaus.zimmermann/programs/aml4_1.html.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×