Journal of Tropical Ecology (2012) 28:327–329. © Cambridge University Press 2012 doi:10.1017/S0266467412000090 SHORT COMMUNICATION Survival of Dipteryx oleifera (Fabaceae) trees after Hurricane Ida in Nicaragua Christine Sarikas ∗ and Gerald R. Urquhart ∗,†,1 ∗ Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, 35 E. Holmes Hall, East Lansing, MI 48825 USA † Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 13 Natural Resource Building, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA (Accepted 28 January 2012) Key Words: canopy, Dipteryx oleifera, emergent, hurricane, Nicaragua, shade-tolerant The impact of hurricanes on tropical forests has been well documented in recent decades, with hurricane disturbance hypothesized to be a leading contributor to maintenance of the high diversity of trees in lowland tropical rain forests (Frangi & Lugo 1991, Vandermeer et al. 2000). Hurricanes have a heterogeneous impact both on landscapes and tree species (Liu & Fearn 2000, Walker et al. 1996). Damage to trees can take many forms, from leaf loss to stem snapping to uprooting, and is variable across the landscape due to topography, wind speed, direction and tree density (Walker 1995). The landfall of strong hurricanes has risen in recent decades (Holland & Webster 2007), with hurricanes along Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast exceeding the once every 100 y that Boucher (1992) predicted. Hurricane Ida made landfall on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua on 3 November 2009 as a Category-2 hurricane with winds of 130 km h −1 . In much of the area it struck, trees were toppled, broken or otherwise damaged, leaving a landscape similar to that found after Hurricane Joan (Category 4) in 1988 (Vandermeer et al. 1995), albeit on a smaller scale. Because wood density plays a role in a species’ ability to withstand the strong winds of hurricanes (Walker et al. 1992), denser trees are more likely to survive storms and experience less damage (Curran et al. 2008, Putz et al. 1983). In the lowland rain forests of Nicaragua, Dipteryx oleifera Benth. (Fabaceae; syn. Dipteryx panamensis (Pittier) Record & Mell) stands out as one of the largest trees (often emergent) and has extremely high wood 1 Corresponding author. Email: urquhart@msu.edu. density (Clark & Clark 1987). Its wood density of 0.745– 0.96 g cm −3 (Chave et al. 2009, Dryad Digital Repository: doi:10.5061/dryad.234) is higher than any of the other emergent trees found in the region (King 1996). Dipteryx oleifera ranges from Nicaragua to Ecuador (http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/herbarium/species/18177/? search_key = D. oleifera). We report the impact of Hurricane Ida on D. oleifera trees in a forest near the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. We had performed a census of all D. oleifera trees at two locations in 2009. One of these was severely impacted by Hurricane Ida in November 2009 and censused again in 2010 to assess the damage to known D. oleifera trees. This study represents the first survey of D. oleifera both before and after a hurricane and demonstrates the resistance of D. oleifera to hurricane damage. The Kahka Creek Nature Preserve (12 ◦ 40.182 ′ N, 83 ◦ 42.905 ′ W) is located within the nationally protected Rio Wawashang Nature Reserve in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) near the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The Preserve contains 600 ha of primary and secondary lowland rain forest that receives 2500– 4000 mm of rain annually with a dry season ranging from January to April. The forests at Kahka Creek have a high number of D. oleifera with densities around 7–10 trees ha −1 > 25 cm diameter above buttresses. A total of seven 1-ha plots were established in May and June of 2009. In each plot, every specimen of D. oleifera with an estimated trunk diameter > 25 cm above the buttresses was recorded. We used a handheld GPS unit (Garmin GPSMap 60CSX) to determine the coordinate location of each specimen.