Data for: Moisture and temperature patterns of canopy humus and forest floor soil of a montane cloud forest, Costa Rica
Data files
Feb 16, 2026 version files 134.82 KB
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Moisture_and_temperature_of_canopy_humus_and_forest_floor_soil.csv
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README.md
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Abstract
Accumulations of organic material can be found in the crowns of trees in tropical wet forests. We investigated moisture and temperature patterns of dead organic matter in the canopy and of soil in the upper horizons of the forest floor over a 42-month period. Temperatures of the canopy material and forest floor soil fluctuated throughout the year (range = 11.5°C to 21.0°C), but remained within an average 1°C of each other. Both canopy material and forest floor soils were moist throughout the wet and misty seasons (over 70% water content). Although canopy organic substrate experienced periods of rapid and severe dehydration during the dry season (20%-40% water content), forest floor soils remained at a consistently high water content (60%-70%). The more extreme and fluctuating moisture conditions of canopy organic material may be important in determining the distribution and activity of epiphytic plants and associated canopy organisms.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b96p
Description of the data and file structure
Moisture_and_temperature_of_canopy_humus_and_forest_floor_soil.csv
Temperature and soil moisture measures (fresh weight, dry weight, percent moisture, and percent dry matter) were taken from canopy humus (CO) and the forest floor A and O horizons (FFA:FFO). Occasionally, temperature data was not gathered—temperature data for these cases is listed as “null”. Samples were taken across three seasons (wet, dry, and misty) an average of nine days apart from October 8th1987 through July 2nd1991 for a total of 2,160 observations across 84 sampling periods. Forest floor measures (FFA and FFO) were paired and share Sample ID codes starting with “FF” followed by an alphabetic indicator for sampling period and a numeric value for the replicate on that day. Canopy samples have an ID starting with “C” followed by the tree ID number from which they were taken, followed by an alphabetic indicator for sampling period and a numeric value for the replicate on that day; these sample are not paired with forest floor measures.