The Big Trees of Barro Colorado Island: Their Size, Abundance, Species Identity, and Ecological Importance

Large statured trees are important for forest ecosystem functions, including carbon stocks and fluxes, and habitat and food for other organisms. In this chapter, I summarize the sizes, abundances, and species identities of big trees on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, using BCI’s historical forest inventory plot data. I discuss the con?tributions of big trees to carbon cycling and community interactions. I also describe the challenges of measuring big trees and the potential for emerging methods to improve measurement accuracy and further advance our ecological understanding of the largest tropical trees.