The Costa Rican seasonal moist forests occupy the Pacific Slope of northwestern Costa Rica and the extreme south of Nicaragua, lying between the crest of the central volcanic chain and the Pacific Ocean. This is a transitional forest dominated largely by deciduous trees that drop their leaves during the dry season, interspersed with closed broadleaf evergreen stands and more open woodland; trees of the laurel family (Lauraceae) are well represented, many of them endemic to the region. The climate is a tropical monsoon regime with even year-round temperatures (all months above 18 degrees Celsius) and roughly 1,500 mm of annual rainfall, almost all of it falling in the wet season while a pronounced dry spell runs about five months from late autumn into early spring. The ecoregion shows high beta diversity, with plant communities shifting markedly from place to place, and it serves as a seasonal destination for migratory frugivores such as the three-wattled bellbird and the resplendent quetzal, alongside larger mammals including jaguar, ocelot, and tapir. Much of the original forest has been cleared for agriculture over the past century, leaving only a small fraction intact and roughly a tenth of the region under formal protection.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 9.9°N, 84.2°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.2°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
4,129 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
Currently suited · 4
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: