Tropical Wet Forest

Overcoming Ecological Barriers to Tropical Lower Montane Forest Succession on Anthropogenic Grasslands: Synthesis and Future Prospects

Background

This review attempts to address the difficulty in restoring grasslands to secondary tropical forest through reforestation. Proposed strategies are discussed for future recruitment methods for woody vegetation.

Research Goals & Methods

This study examines work conducted in Knuckles Forest Reserve (KFR) in the lower montane tropical rainforest and grasslands of Sri Lanka.

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Edge-Effects Drive Tropical Forest Fragments Towards an Early-Successional System

Background

This paper argues that edge effects trigger a rapid and inevitable successional process that drives most remaining neotropical forest fragments towards a persistent early-successional system.

Open access copy available

Ecological Implications of Harvesting Non-Timber Forest Products

Background

This article examines 70 case studies on the ecological effects of harvesting plant-species NTFPs in an attempt to draw broader conclusions for both forest resource management and future research.

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Degraded Lands Worth Protecting: the Biological Importance of Southeast Asia's Repeatedly Logged Forests.

Background

The study examines the impacts of second logging cycles on biodiversity by comparing species richness, species composition and population-level responses of birds and dung beetle species across unlogged forest, first rotation forest, and second rotation forest in Sabah, Malaysia.

Research Goals & Methods

The authors sample 18 sites, 6 for each forest type, over a two year period. They use point count and mist net censuses for bird species and pitfall traps to count dung beetles.

Open access copy available

Drought, Fire, and Tree Survival in a Borneo Rainforest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Background

While draughts and fires are seen as important components of tropical forests, large-scale assessments of the effects of these events are scarce. This paper compares the forest stand level impact between severe drought and a subsequent extensive fires on forest stand in a lowland rainforest in East Kalimantan.

Open access copy available

Interactions among Amazon Land Use, Forests and Climate: Prospects for a Near-Term Forest Tipping Point

Background

This study concerns the interaction of anthropogenic and natural threats on the Amazon forest and considers the possibility of a tipping point in the near future. The authors argue that the interaction of various factors may lead to a large-scale forest dieback, for example a deforestation of about 31% of the Amazon closed-canopy forest formation.

Open access copy available

Monitoring Forest Degradation in Tropical Regions by Remote Sensing: Some Methodological Issues

Background

This review examines different remote sensing techniques to monitor vegetation cover at a regional scale. The objective was to discuss implications related to monitoring of open forest degradation.

Research Goals & Methods

Techniques include methods to track both spatial and temporal changes in structure and function associated with land use change.

Open access copy available

Multiple-Use Forest Management in the Humid Tropics: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Forest Management

background

This report documents three regional assessments that were carried out between 2009 and 2012 to identify and draw lessons from on-the-ground initiatives in multiple-use forest management (MFM) in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. 

Open access copy available

Rehabilitation of Nickel Mining Sites in New Caledonia

background

New Caledonia has the fourth largest Nickle deposits in the world, and major mining companies have frequently used open-pit nickle extraction. New Caledonia boasts around 1,137 endemic species, and distrubance from mining threatened many of them. The government came under pressure to regulate the mining sector and rehabilitate mined areas damaged from mining pollution. Both the waterways and New Caledonia's tourism sector suffered from the pollution.

Open access copy available

Ecological Restoration of Xingu Basin Headwaters: Motivations, Engagement, Challenges and Perspectives

Background

This paper focuses on the Brazilian Amazon, specifically on the Xingu River Basin. It identifites deforestation as a threat to the Xingu River and a driver of environmental degradation.

Open access copy available
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