Resource Library Search

Type any text into the search box. Narrow your search using the dropdown boxes or the filters in the sidebar. If there are no results, try using fewer filters or broder dropdown options. 

Advanced Search Options

Access

Subject Areas

Species

Responses of 20 Native Tree Species to Reforestation Strategies for Abandoned Farmland in Panama

Background

In the tropics, deforestation often leads to unproductive agriculture and results in degraded grasslands. This study seeks to understand why forests fail to regenerate naturally in these ecosystems. 

Open access copy available

Fire in the Seasonal Semideciduous Forest: Impact and Regeneration at Forest Edges

background

This study looks at a fragment of semi-deciduous forest in Brazil to determine the effects of fire on vegetation at varying distances from the fragment’s edge, as well as the recovery of forest structure and species diversity after fire.

Open access copy available

Manual de Reforestación para América Tropical (Reforestation Manual for Tropical America)

Este documento aporta una visión general de la reforestación a partir de muchas perspectivas diferentes.

Open access copy available

Helping Forests to Help Themselves—Accelerating Natural Regeneration

background

This chapter walks through the basic techniques of accelerated (or assisted) natural regeneration (ANR), describing when it is appropriate, when it should be combined with other techniques, how to increase the seed rain, and areas of needed research.

Open access copy available

Cronología de la regeneración del bosque tropical seco en Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. I. Características edáficas (Chronology of tropical dry forest regeneration in Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica)

Español

antecedentes

El objetivo del presente estudio es caracterizar  las propiedades químicas y físicas de los suelos a lo largo de una cronosecuencia de ocho fragmentos de bosque tropical estacionalmente seco en Santa Rosa, Costa Rica.

Open access copy available

Consequences of plantation harvest during tropical forest restoration in Uganda

Background

Open access copy available

Influence of species richness and environmental context on early survival of replanted mangroves at Gazi bay, Kenya

Background

Mangrove restoration is often unsuccessful, thus this study involves long-term large-scale experiments measuring a range of ecosystem functions in replanted mangrove stands in Ghazi in Kenya funded by Earthwatch.

Open access copy available

Seed Dispersal and Potential Forest Succession in Abandoned Agriculture in Tropical Africa

Background

Forest succession on disturbed and post-agrarian lands is often slow because the resources necessary for succession – such as soil nutrients, seeds, and moisture – are depleted. In such areas, succession may depend on bat- and bird-dispersed seeds arriving from distant forest patches.

Open access copy available

Trees and regeneration in rubber agroforests and other forest-derived vegetation in Jambi (Sumatra, Indonesia)

background

Rubber agroforests (RAF) in Sumatra, introduced in the early 1900s, represent a managed forest type that is an intermediate ecosystem between natural forest and agricultural land. While understory vegetation and some trees are allowed to remain in RAF, as agriculturally managed forests, they may differ from unmanaged forests. This study compares forest regeneration in RAF and secondary forests.

Open access copy available

Seed inputs to microsite patch recovery on two tropandean landslides in Ecuador

Background

Regeneration of landslides is typically initiated by seed rain. This study reports on seed rain, seed pool, and plant cover on two Ecuadorian landslides.

Open access copy available

Tropical rainforest regeneration in an area degraded by mining in Mato Grosso State, Brazil

Background

Gold mining has been a major cause of environmental degradation in the rainforests in the north of Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Regulations on mining activity are beginning to be developed, including standards for forest recovery methodologies. This study characterizes natural tropical rainforest regeneration in Matupa County, Mato Grosso State, Brazil.

Open access copy available

Taking Back the Land: Factors Aiding or Constraining Regeneration of Damaged Mangrove Forests in South Andaman Island

Background

The mangrove forests in the Andaman Islands of India have suffered severe decline, which has only been enhanced by the 2004 tsunami season. While there has been numerous resources and efforts put into restoring and reforesting these mangroves, much of them have been futile. This study seeks to understand why.

Open access copy available

Effects of Invasive Alien Plants on Fire Regimes

Background

This article considers how  invasive plant species affect native ecosystems by altering fuel properties, fire behavior and fire regime characteristics. These may impact the ability of a site to restore to its previous state.

Open access copy available

Bird Perches Increase Forest Seeds on Puerto Rican Landslides

Background

Forest regeneration is typically difficult after landslides due to loss of above- and below-ground vegetative structure, the soil seed bank, soil nutrients, and soil structure. Landslides are a common occurrence in Puerto Rico due to its steep topography and heavy rainfall periods and often transform into grass- or fern-dominated terrain. Insufficient seed rain is thought to be one contributing factor.

Open access copy available

Satellite Data-Based Phenological Evaluation of the Nationwide Reforestation of South Korea

Background

South Korea's reforestation efforts since the 1950s have been evaluated for changes in biomass, area and growing stock; but little has been done to study the phenology changes (seasonal changes) and photosynthetic activity, which will help in the preparation of new forest management in light of climate change.

Open access copy available

Rôle des perturbations actuelles et passées dans la dynamique et mosaique forestière (Role of current and past disturbances on dynamics and forest mosaics)

The author broadly discusses community and population dynamics in tropical forests, including mortality and dispersal. He highlights the role of animal dispersal and disturbances in modifying stand heterogeneity.

 

Open access copy available

Aspects de la régénération naturelle en forêt dense de Côte-d’Ivoire (Aspects of natural forest regeneration in Ivory Coast)

The author describes forest dynamics in the Ivory Coast. He discusses primarily forest regeneration as a process disturbed by perturbations that leave a gap in the canopy and notes that leading up to these disturbances, forested areas build up seed banks. The author concludes that characteristics of the disturbance determine future forest vegetation.

 

Open access copy available

Successions Post-Culturales en Foret Tropicale: Essai de Synthèse Bibliographique (Secondary succession in tropical forests: essay and bibliographic synthesis)

This article discusses four models of secondary succession (facilitation, inhibition, tolerance, and random). The authors examine the differences between the fundamental niche and the realized niche and they note that very little has been studied about ecosystem function of tropical forests.

 

Open access copy available

Changing gears during succession: shifting functional strategies in young tropical secondary forests

Background

Adaptations toresource availability strongly shape patterns of community composition along successional gradients in environmental conditions. This study examines the extent to which variation in functional composition explains shifts in trait-based functional strategies in young tropical secondary forests during the most dynamic stage of succession (0–20 years).

Open access copy available

Globalization and Forest Resurgence: Changes in Forest Cover in El Salvador

Background

The authors study certain globalization impacts in land-use change in El Salvador. The legacy of war, remittances and international migration are among other factors that have allowed tree resurgence even in highly urban populated areas.  This study tracks the different trajectories of forest recovery by analysing remote-sensing satellite images from 1970's to the early 2000's.

Open access copy available