Tree cavities are a critical resource for many animals, especially as nesting sites for birds. Patterns of cavity distribution in temperate forests are well studied, yet little is known of cavities in tropical forests, despite a hypothesized decrease in cavity availability with decreasing latitude. We studied cavity density and distribution in a wet lowland tropical forest in Costa Rica and compared our results with estimates from forests around the world. Cavities at our site were common, occurred frequently in living trees, and were often formed by damage or decay rather than by woodpeckers. Most cavities had small openings, and woodpecker‐created cavities were nonrandomly oriented. Contrary to prediction, cavity density appears to increase from the poles to the tropics. We suggest potential mechanisms to explain these patterns.

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Geothermally modified ground water (GMG) in tectonically active areas can be an important source of stream nutrients, and the relative importance of GMG inflows is likely to change with shifts in precipitation that are predicted to occur in response to climate change. However, few studies have quantified the influence of GMG inflows on export of biologically important solutes from watersheds across years differing in precipitation. We quantified N, soluble reactive P (SRP), and dissolved organic C (DOC) export during a year with high precipitation (6550 mm rain) and a year with average precipitation (4033 mm rain) in 2 gauged tropical streams at La Selva Biological Station in lowland Costa Rica. One stream receives extensive inputs of regional GMG, whereas the other is fed entirely by local runoff. In the stream fed only by local runoff, a 62% increase in precipitation from the dry year to the wet year led to a 68% increase in stream discharge, a 67% increase in export of SRP, DOC, dissolved organic N (DON), and NH 4 + , and a 91% increase in NO 3 -export. In contrast, in an adjacent stream where >⅓ of discharge consists of GMG, the same increase in precipitation from dry year to wet year led to a 14% increase in discharge, a 14 to 31% increase in export of NO 3 -, NH 4 + , DON, and DOC, and only a 2% increase in SRP export. We are unaware of an SRP export rate from a natural system that is higher than the export from the stream receiving interbasin flow of GMG (19 kg ha -1 y -1 ). Our results illustrate that regional ground water, geothermally modified or not, can stabilize stream export of biologically relevant solutes and water across a varying precipitation regime.