Ecotones are the transition zones between ecosystems and can exhibit steep gradients in ecosystem properties controlling flows of energy and organisms between them. Ecotones are understood to be sensitive to climate and environmental changes, but the potential for spatiotemporal dynamics of ecotones to act as indicators of such changes is limited by methodological and logistical constraints. Here, we use a novel combination of satellite remote sensing and analyses of spatial synchrony to identify the tropical dry forest–rainforest ecotone in Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We further examine how climate and topography influence the spatiotemporal dynamics of the ecotone, showing that ecotone is most prevalent at mid‐elevations where the topography leads to moisture accumulation and that climatic moisture availability influences up and downslope interannual variation in ecotone location. We found some evidence for long‐term (22 year) trends toward upslope or downslope ecotone shifts, but stronger evidence that regional climate mediates topographic controls on ecotone properties. Our findings suggest the ecotone boundary on the dry forest side may be less resilient to future precipitation reductions and that if drought frequency increases, ecotone reductions are more likely to occur along the dry forest boundary.

中文翻译：

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气候和地形控制热带干旱森林-热带雨林交错带的变化


生态交错带是生态系统之间的过渡带，可以表现出生态系统特性的陡峭梯度，控制它们之间的能量和生物体的流动。据了解，生态交错带对气候和环境变化很敏感，但生态交错带的时空动态作为此类变化指标的潜力受到方法论和后勤限制的限制。在这里，我们使用卫星遥感和空间同步分析的新组合来确定哥斯达黎加瓜纳卡斯特保护区的热带干旱森林-热带雨林交错带。我们进一步研究了气候和地形如何影响生态交错带的时空动态，表明生态交错带在中海拔地区最为普遍，那里的地形导致水分积累，并且气候水分可用性会影响生态交错带位置的上下坡年际变化。我们发现了一些证据表明长期（22 年）趋向于上坡或下坡的生态交错带变化，但更有力的证据表明区域气候介导了对生态交错带特性的地形控制。我们的研究结果表明，干旱森林一侧的生态交错带边界对未来降水减少的弹性可能较差，如果干旱频率增加，生态交错带减少更有可能发生在干旱森林边界沿线。