Impacts of Disturbance

Mangrove forests: Resilience, protection from tsunamis, and responses to global climate change

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Disturbance and Tropical Pioneer Species: Patterns of Association Across Life History Stages

BAckground

The authors studied pioneer species common in the Sinharaja World Heritage Reserve in Sri Lanka to characterize differences in relation to canopy openness and type, and intensity of disturbance using a combination of field work, canopy photos, and regression models.

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Disturbance, Recovery and Resilience in Tropical Forests: A Focus on the Coastal Peat Swamp Forests of Malaysian Borneo

Background

This thesis represents four years of work investigating the long-term ecological changes that have occurred in the coastal peat swamp forests of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo over the Late Holocene.

Research Goals & Methods

Three peat cores were extracted from sites along the coast of northern Borneo and fossil pollen and charcoal analysis performed on them in order to look at how vegetation has changed in the past, and what factors may have caused disturbances to the baseline forest communities

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Ecological restoration, rehabilitation and recuperation- national plan for ecosystem restoration (Colombia: Restauración ecológica, rehabilitación y recuperación- plan nacional de restauración de ecosistemas)

 

English

background

In recent years, restoration efforts in Colombia have focused mostly on the control of invasive plants such as Ulex europaeus and the restoration of riparian forests. Nevertheless, to tackle biodiversity loss and forest disturbance and attaining the restoration of affected ecosystems, a more integral strategy is required.

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Seed inputs to microsite patch recovery on two tropandean landslides in Ecuador

Background

Regeneration of landslides is typically initiated by seed rain. This study reports on seed rain, seed pool, and plant cover on two Ecuadorian landslides.

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Floristic Composition, Structure and Natural Regeneration in a Moist Semi-Deciduous Forest following Anthropogenic Disturbances and Plant Invasion

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This study examines the floristic composition, structure and natural regeneration in three forest types: disturbed forest (DF), undisturbed forest (UF), and disturbed-invaded forest (DIF) in Tinte Bepo forest reserve in Ghana. In addition, this study also considers how anthropogenic disturbances and plant invasion affect plant species composition. 

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Consequences of plantation harvest during tropical forest restoration in Uganda

Background

Timber plantations have recently received considerable attention as a forest restoration strategy for heavily degraded lands in the humid tropics. Plantations can facilitate secondary forest regrowth by providing an understory environment more favorable for native plant recruitment than unmanaged degraded habitats. This study explores how using plantations as a restoration tool affects forest succession; how initial floristics affect successional pathways; and the effect of fire exclusion or other interventions.

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Native Tree Species Regeneration and Diversity in the Mountain Cloud Forests of East Africa

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This study evaluates the diversity of native species regeneration within 3 native and exotic forest plantations of the indigenous forests of Tatia Hills, East Africa.

Research Goals & Methods

Researchers monitoried species diversity, richness and similarity of regenerated species between exotic plantations of pine, eucalyptus and cypress, as well as between native and exotic forests.

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Tree density, basal area and species diversity in a disturbed dry tropicalforest of northern India: implications for conservation

Background

Dry tropical forest communities are among the world’s most threatened systems. Rapid measures are required to protect and restore them in degraded landscapes. For planning conservation strategies, there is a need to determine the essential measurable properties, such as number of species and basal area, that best describe the dry forest vegetation and its environment, and to document quantitative relationships among them.

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Ecological Significance of Crown Functional Traits Across Size Classes and Disturbance Environments in Eight Pioneer Species in a Sri Lankan Rain Forest

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This article evaluates the tree crown characteristics of eight pioneer tree species in the Shorea-Mesua vegetation type (an aseasonal, mixed dipterocarp forest) around the Sinharaja World Heritage Forest Reserve in southwest Sri Lanka.

Research Goals & Methods

The crown surface area, crown volume, and live crown ratio were measured as well as evaluated for their correlation with tree size classes and disturbance causes.

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