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Land Use Transitions: Socio-Ecological Feedback versus Socio-Economic Change

background

This study seeks to understand the social, environmental, and economic factors that influence land use transition and how those factors influence resulting forest quality. The study looks at both at forest loss and reforestation. The authors use recent changes in forest cover in northern Vietnam as a case study.

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A Strategy for Restoration of Montane Forest in Anthropogenic Fern Thickets in the Dominican Republic

Background

This study looked at the potential of different tree species to grow in clearings in fern-dominated thickets in a state of arrested succession. It was conducted in the Ébano Verde Scientific Reserve in the Dominican Republic with subtropical montane forest.

Research Goals & Methods

The authors cleared fern-dominated shrubs with machetes and planted 18 species of early and late successional trees and shrubs with and without a single application of fertilizer.

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Seed germination and seedling establishment of Neotropical dry forest species in response to temperature and light conditions

Background

Site conditions in restoration projects vary widely, with proper conditions for germination not always available for a given species. This study examines the germination requirements of Cedrela odorata, Guaiacum sanctum and Calycophyllum candidissimum seeds under varying light conditions beneath the canopy of a dry forest in Nicaragua.

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Secondary Forest Regeneration Under Fast-Growing Forest Plantations on Degraded Imperata cylindrica Grasslands

BACKGROUND

In Southeast Asia, large areas of former rain forest lands are covered by fire-climax Imperata cyclindrica (alang-alang) grass. Grass has potential to colonize varying types and sizes of land preventing regrowth of woody species. Natural forest recovery is inhibited by fires and competition with grass and shrubs. Planting fast growing tree species can create needed micro-climate and speed up regeneration of woody species.  This study compared the regeneration of native tree species under the canopy of tree plantations, riverine areas, and uncultivated grassland areas.

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Can Intensive Management Accelerate the Restoration of Brazil’s Atlantic Forests?

background

This study takes place in the heavily degraded Atlantic Forest region of eastern Brazil, where only 7% of the original forest cover remains. The study tests the question of whether intensive management methods similar to those used to establish fast-growing Eucalyptus plantations could also be applied to restoration of rainforest on former pasture-land dominated by grasses. 

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The Value of Rehabilitating Logged Rainforest for Birds

Background

This study examines a lowland, dry dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia that had been selectively logged in 1988-89. One area was rehabilitated (enrichment planting and liberation cutting of vines, bamboos, and noncommercial species). This area was surrounded by a naturally reforesting area. The authors suggest that rehabilitation of selectively logged forests is a more effective carbon sink than plantations.

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Vegetation recovery on earthquake-triggered landslide sites in the Ecuadorian Andes

Background

In this study, researchers surveyed vegetation in a landslide on the Quijos river in Ecuador and inventoried species distribution at distances along the landslide.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The authors found that species composition at the upper limit of the landslide is most similar to the plant composition of the forest, indicating that the forest is an important pool of colonizers. The authors suggest that earthquake landslides are common and an important contributor to floristic diversity

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Ecosystem services from forest restoration: thinking ahead

Background

This paper examines broad trends in our understanding of ecosystem services and how different restoration strategies can be based on distinct motives (biodiversity preservation, bioenergy production, or carbon sequestration) and may rely on diverse tools.

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Landscape Pattern Dynamics and Mechanisms during Vegetation Restoration: A Multiscale, Hierarchical Patch Dynamics Approach

Background

This study examines patterns of restoration using permanent plots and remote sensing of a nature reserve from 1979 to the present using a multiscale, hierarchical patch dynamic framework.

Research Goals & Methods

This study attempts to document changes in time and space during the restoration of forests with the purpose of understanding its patterns and processes.

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The Role of Nurse Trees in Mitigating Fire Effects on Tropical Dry Forest Restoration: A Case Study

Background

The authors of this study initially studied differential growth rates in a reforestation project of native tree species with nurse trees(Leucaena leucocephala) and without nurse trees when the area had two fire events. However, authors took advantage of the unplanned experiment to study the effects of fire in reforestation.

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