Images of Tropical Dry Forests

Aerial view of tropical dry forest in Bolivia in 1975

This image was taken by NASA Landsat satellites 1, 4, and 5 in 1975. As you can see, there was already a large amount of deforestation and fragmentation taking place in the tropical dry forests of Bolivia by 1975. More recent pictures, which I will present later, will show the transformation of the tropical dry forests in Bolivia into agricultural fields. Even though this is not an image of tropical dry forest in Mexico, I speculate that Mexico's tropical dry forest in 1975 looked similar to this, or maybe even worse due to Mexico's historically low percentages of protected tropical dry forest areas. 

Source: http://terra.nasa.gov/Brochure/Sect_1-2.html

Mature tropical dry forest

This is an image of a mature tropical dry forest in Mexico. This is not a historical image of a tropical dry forest, but from various articles, we can infer that this is what tropical dry forests looked like historically. Notice the fullness of the forest. There is little fragmentation and the forest appears to be large and continuous.


Source: http://tinyurl.com/7hjezod

Tropical dry forest after being slashed for agricultural use

This image is of a tropical dry forest in Mexico that has been slashed for agricultural use. Many areas of tropical dry forest in Mexico are used to grow corn, also known as maize. Today, many areas of tropical dry forest appear like this, with less native vegetation. These forests appear sparse and fragmented when looked at from an aerial view.


Source: http://tinyurl.com/7hjezod

Fragmented tropical dry forest in Mexico

This is an aerial view of a tropical dry forest in Mexico. From this view you can clearly see that the forest is not continuous and has heavy fragmentation. 

Source: http://tinyurl.com/7hjezod