Table 1 Some definitions/concepts of tropical dry forests provided by different authors
S/N | Definitions/concepts | Sources |
|---|---|---|
1 | In the simplest terms, TDFs may be defined as forests occurring in tropical regions characterized by pronounced seasonality in rainfall distribution, resulting in several months of drought. | Mooney et al. (1995) |
2 | Tropical dry forest, also known as seasonally dry tropical forest, can loosely be defined as forest in frost-free regions with 500–2000 mm of precipitation annually and a pronounced dry season of 4–7 months. | |
3 | FAO’s definition describes TDFs as forests experiencing a tropical climate, with summer rains … a dry period of 5 to 8 months [and] annual rainfall ranges from 500 to 1500 mm. | |
4 | Tropical dry forests are forest types that occur in an environment with a seasonal climate characterized by at least three dry months, and with an annual rainfall ranging from 250 mm to 2000 mm. | Menaut et al. (1995), Mayaux et al. (2005), Meir and Pennington (2011) |
5 | TDFs can be broadly defined as a vegetation type typically dominated by deciduous trees (at least 50% of trees present are drought deciduous), where the mean annual temperature is ≥ 25 °C, total annual precipitation ranges between 700 and 2000 mm, and there are three or more dry months every year (precipitation < 100 mm per month). | Sanchez-Azofeifa et al. (2005) |
6 | It should be noted that the inclusion of structural and/or functional component to the aforementioned definitions is important in distinguishing TDFs from the tropical savanna biomes, which otherwise share similar climatic conditions and vegetation structure particularly with degraded forests. Accordingly, TDFs, unlike the savanna biomes, are characterized by woody tall (> 10 m) vegetation with no C4 grass layer and have an intermediate shade-tolerant tree layer, commonly with a litter layer floor and occasional patches of herbaceous plants including C3 grasses. |