Forest Dynamics

Restoration of Degraded Tropical Forest Landscapes

Background

Deforestation and the declining extent of tropical forests has negatively impacted ecosystem functions, services, and goods and has disproportionately harmed the rural poor of tropical countries. In the wake of deforestation, agricultural development and traditional methods of reforestation (plantations) have largely failed to provide sustainable livelihoods. This review article assesses the strengths and weaknesses of different tropical restoration methods to combat forest degredation and address rural poverty.

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Genetic Consequences of Tropical Second-Growth Forest Regeneration

Background

This article is an examination of the genetic impacts of old-growth deforestation among 24 year-old second-growth Iriartea deltoidea, a canopy palm, in a lowland Costa Rican forest. Iriartea is widely distributed throughout neotropical rainforests and displays a diverse range of size classes in mature forests. This species recolonizes second-growth forests with newly generated seeds, which are dispersed by birds and mammals.

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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.

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Carbon Sequestration Potential of Indian Forests

background

While deforestation in the tropics is a common subject of concern, India has retained a net positive afforestation rate from 1951-2000, with greatest gains after 1980. These efforts have afforested 35 MHa.

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Assessing Forest Degradation: Towards the Development of Globally Applicable Guidelines

background

This FAO report defines forest degradation and provides guidelines for assessing levels of degradation with the purpose of influencing policies and forest management plans towards restoration. The report provides directions on how to measure four markers: 1) growing stock and biomass, 2) biodiversity, 3) production of forest goods, and 4) soil erosion. 

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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).

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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. 

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