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Árboles Nativos para Predios Ganaderos

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Antecedentes

Open access copy available

Anything but a story foretold: multiple politics of resistance to the agrarian extractivist project in Guatemala

Background

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Potential for low-cost carbon removal through tropical reforestation

background

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Tropical surface gold mining: A review of ecological impacts and restoration strategies

BACKGROUND

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Forest ecosystem services at landscape level – Why forest transition matters?

Background

Forest transition theory describes patterns of forest decline and recovery. This theory explains what services change as forested landscapes shift in the three stages of recovery. This model covers both forest-type gradients (diversity and usage) and landscape gradients (connectivity and coverage). It is not yet understood how these forest transition stages influence the quantity and quality of ecosystem services.

Open access copy available

Forest structure predicts species richness and functional diversity in Amazonian mixed-species bird flocks

Background

Secondary forests between forest fragments are valuable sources of biodiversity during the regeneration process. In the Brazilian Amazon, understory birds are often an indicator of forest regeneration and overall health. Functional diversity is an important component of ecosystem health and services, yet little is known about the role it plays in the return of mixed-species bird flocks.

Open access copy available

Edaphic factors and initial conditions influence successional trajectories of early regenerating tropical dry forests

Background

Edaphic factors include soil characteristics and topography of a landscape. These factors are thought to have strong impacts on forest communities and can predict the trajectory of forest regeneration. Differing soil conditions and slopes result in varying species assemblages, growth rates, and overall tree cover.

Open access copy available

Tree Canopy Management Affects Dynamics of Herbaceous Vegetation and Soil Moisture in Silvopasture Systems Using Arboreal Legumes

Background

It is important to understand how herbaceous and arboreal species interact with each other, specifically how shade effects understory plants. Silvopasture functions best when both strata of the forest are thriving. Silvopasture is impacted by species chosen, spacing of tree plantings, and other management practices. Tree legume species such as Gliricidia sepium and Mimosa caesalpiniifolia hold a potential value for commercial use while also fixing soil nitrogen in the soil.

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National parks and conservation concessions: a comparison between mammal populations in two types of tropical protected areas in Ucayali, Peru

Background

Peru holds the second largest portion of the Amazon rainforest and is threatened by illegal logging and crop cultivation, as well as mining and other activities. Protected areas are one method of forest conservation, which can exist as conservation concessions. These areas of land granted for protection and rehabilitation area vital to maintaining the health and distribution of the forest. Biodiversity is understudied in many of these regions, especially about terrestrial mammals.

Open access copy available

Lightly-harvested rustic cocoa is a valuable land cover for amphibian and reptile conservation in human-modified rainforest landscapes

Background

Tropical biodiversity is impacted by anthropogenic land covers such as agriculture. Land use has the ability to both negatively and positively impact tropical biodiversity. In the tropics, important crops are grown in tropical forested landscapes such as coffee and cocoa. These forest understories are also important habitats for highly sensitive and ecologically vulnerable amphibian species. Amphibians and reptiles are an understudied taxa in conservation ecology and targeted in this study.

Open access copy available

Divergent litterfall nutrient responses to rainfall seasonality revealed through long-term observations in a tropical dry forest

Background

Forest litterfall can provide important nutrients to the soil for ecosystem health such as Phosphorus and Nitrogen. In water limited ecosystems rainfall often controls forest nutrient cycling. It is not yet understood how nutrient uptake of these nutrients is influenced by seasonal rainfall and how these litter nutrient contents change from year to year.

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Human Persecution is An Important Threat to the Conservation of the Endangered Black-and-Chestnut Eagle in Northern Andes

Background

Human-wildlife conflicts are widespread and put threatened species at an even higher risk of extinction. Human persecution of threatened wild animals with the aim to protect domesticated animals contributes to the decline of threatened wild animals. The black-and-chestnut eagle is under threat in the northern Andes of Ecuador and Colombia due to efforts to protect domestic poultry.

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Frugivory and seed dispersal in the Cerrado: Network structure and defaunation effects

Background

Seed dispersal is an important process for ecosystem functioning. The Brazilian Cerrado, the world’s largest and most biodiverse savanna, contains a plethora of animal dispersed plant woody plant species. The Cerrado region is understudied and identifying species roles in ecosystem networks needs to be better understood for evolutionary and conservation purposes.

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Pollinator recognition by a keystone tropical plant

Background

The evolution of flowering plants is complex and has resulted in a great amount of diversity in species both genetically and structurally. Pollination is the key to providing this variability and is responsible for evolutionary patterns and trends in flowering plant species. Some flowering plants are generalists, allowing for many types of pollinators to visit, while others are highly specified. The mechanism for this specialization is not well understood.

Open access copy available

The importance of insects on land and in water: a tropical view

Background

Insects provide a wide variety of ecosystem services such as pollination, nutrient cycling, and seed dispersal. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are thought to be supported by the conservation of diverse insect communities. The roles of tropical insects in ecosystem services and their contributions are summarized in this literature review. The authors identify research trends, knowledge gaps, and potential avenues for future investigations.

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Regeneration Status and Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Cloud Forest Ecosystem Restoration in Ecuador

Background

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Post-fire ecological restoration in Latin American forest ecosystems: Insights and lessons from the last two decades

Background

Forests make up a significant portion of the earth’s aboveground biodiversity. Human-caused wildfires are a main driver of forest loss across Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors review literature to understand the causes of fires and strategies of post-fire restoration. They focus their search on more recent literature within the last two decades in order to highlight the most advanced methods. The authors also search for gaps in knowledge or application of fire restoration practices that may be hindering progress.

Open access copy available

Ecosystem restoration job creation potential in Brazil

Background

Ecosystem restoration is recognized globally for its environmental benefits. Other benefits from ecosystem restoration such as job creation may be of high interest to key stakeholders. The leverage of job creation may motivate additional investments and long-term commitment from stakeholders into restoration projects.

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Identifying hotspots for ecosystem restoration across heterogeneous tropical savannah-dominated regions

Background

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Assisted restoration interventions drive functional recovery of tropical wet forest tree communities

Background

Integrating science and practice is one of the main goals of the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. A variety of factors can influence the application of restoration treatments across tropical ecosystems. Deciding where to apply a restoration strategy on the spectrum between natural regeneration an active restoration planting can be challenging and there is not enough current knowledge that compares these methods.

Open access copy available