Succession and Management of Tropical Dry Forests in the Americas: Review and New Perspectives
Background
This article emphasizes the importance of understanding of successional processes in tropical dry forests. It provides an overview of the current knowledge of the ecology of tropical dry forest ecosystems and discusses management implications . The authors describe rapidly increasing degradation and destruction of these ecosystems and identify gaps in knowledge to be addressed by future research.
Conclusions & Takeaways
Aspects covered in the article related to ecosystem succession include: issues associated to tropical dry forest succession, plant diversity and composition, plant phenology and remote sensing, pollination, and animal–plant interactions. Furthermore, the authors stress the importance of understanding social processes in relation to deforestation and degradation in the regions of tropical dry forests given that research priorities often favor wet forests.
Reference:
Succession and management of tropical dry forests in the Americas: Review and new perspectives. Forest Ecology and Management. 2009;258:1014–1024. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.06.023.
Affiliation:
- Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Escuela de Ingenieria Forestal, Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica
- Departamento de Biologia Geral/CCBS, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Departamento de Botaˆnica, IB – UNESP, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Departments of Plant Biology, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, and Soil, Water and Climate, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA