Pattern and Process in Neotropical Secondary Rain Forests: The First 100 Years of Succession

Pattern and Process in Neotropical Secondary Rain Forests: The First 100 Years of Succession

Background

According the author, there has been an increasing rate of deforested areas that are being left to natural regenerate into a secondary succession forest. There is great interest in whether these forest will offer similar characteristics to primary forests, information and data is currently restricted to the first few years to a potentially decade long process. The author spends the paper reviewing recent advances in neotropical secondary succession. 

Conclusions & Takeaways

The author reviews studies that primarily focus on trends in forest species richness and composition, and the dynamics of populations of woody species. He notes that a long term look at tropical succession uncovers similarities with succession in temperate forests. The paper concludes calling for increasing experimental studies that examine the regeneration of long-lived species in abandoned plots.

 

Reference: 

Finegan B. Pattern and process in neotropical secondary rain forests: the first 100 years of succession. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 1996;11:119–124. doi:10.1016/0169-5347(96)81090-1.

Affiliation: 

  • Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion, Ensefianza, Turrialba, Costa Rica.
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