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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.

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Finding the money for tropical forest restoration

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Biodiversity Persistence in Highly Human-modified Tropical Landscapes Depends on Ecological Restoration

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This paper shows how forest restoration can enhance biodiversity using case studies from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. 

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Tropical rain forest fragmentation and its ecological and species diversity changes in Southern Yunnan

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Animal species richness is understood to decline with fragmentation of tropical forests. While the same is assumed of plant species richness, fewer studies have been undertaken on this subject. This study on sacred groves in southern Yunnan, southwestern China, evaluates the plant species richness of these tropical rainforest fragments.

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Effects of Fragmentation of the Atlantic Forest on Mammal Communities in South-Eastern Brazil

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The Cultural Context of Forest Degradation in Adjacent Purépechan Communities, Michoacán, Mexico

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This study aims to understand the relationship between cultural and ecological drivers contributing to change in forest land use patterns by comparing two adjacent indigenous communities in the volcanic plateau region of Michoacán, Mexico. The study suggests that both cultural and ecological processes must be studied together to best understand the cultural causes of forest change and accurately assess ecological consequences.

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Microbiological Indicators of Soil Quality and Degradation Following Conversion of Native Forests to Continuous Croplands

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Effects of Dry Tropical Forest Fragmentation on the Reproductive Success and Genetic Structure of the tree Samanea saman

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Tropical trees are particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation due to low population densities and reproductive self-incompatibility. Forest fragmentation is likely to decrease gene flow, increase endogamy, and eventually produce a high differentiation among remnant populations.

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Increasing Drought Sensitivity and Decline of Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) in the Moroccan Middle Atlas Forests

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Since the 1980s, severe droughts have influenced Atlas cedar mortality in Morocco. This study looked at relative contributions of tree characteristics and stand structure on the increment-growth and decline of Atlas cedar trees (Cedrus atlantica) in stands affected by past logging and heavy grazing.

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

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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.

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Ecological Implications of Harvesting Non-Timber Forest Products

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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Management of the environmental restoration of degraded areas

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This study shares the results of an experimental method for restoration of degraded forest areas through the construction of small restoration ‘islands’ within a larger site as an impetus for further natural regeneration. The method has previously been used in Namibia and Spain and is trademarked as Revitec. This study tests the method in Brazil in a former rainforest area. Rainforest fragments remain in the area.

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Burning Biodiversity: Fuelwood Harvesting Causes Forest Degradation in Human-Dominated Tropical Landscapes

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Regeneration Status of Mangrove Forests in Mida Creek, Kenya: A Compromised or Secured Future?

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This study investigates natural regeneration and timber potential of the mangrove forests of Mida Creek for better management through the principle of sustained yields.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Nurse Plant Theory and its Application in Ecological Restoration in Lower Subtropics of China

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This study examines the mechanisms of the nurse tree effect and ecological factors that influence tree nursing and its relationship to ecological restoration.

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Self-restoration of post-agrogenic soils of Calcisol-Solonetz complex: Soil development, carbon stock dynamics of carbon pools

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