Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances

doi:10.1078/1433-8319-00042

Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics

Volume 6, Issues 1–2, 2003, Pages 51-71

https://doi.org/10.1078/1433-8319-00042 Get rights and content

Abstract

Land-use history interacts with natural forces to influence the severity of disturbance events and the rate and nature of recovery processes in tropical forests. Although we are far from an integrated view of forest recovery processes, some generalizations can be made. Recovery of forest structure and composition is relatively rapid following disturbances that primarily impact forest canopies, such as hurricanes. Recovery is considerably slower following disturbances that heavily impact soils as well as aboveground vegetation, such as bulldozing, heavy or long-term grazing, and severe fires, often with long-lasting effects on species composition. The landscape matrix plays a critical role in local recovery processes. Proximity of disturbed areas to remnant forest patches promotes more rapid recovery, which depends heavily on seed dispersal. Recovery of aboveground biomass is constrained by soil fertility and texture across regions as well as across soil types within a region. Restoration of soil fertility may be a prerequisite for forest recovery on sites with severely degraded soils. Despite evidence of rapid forest recovery following large-scale deforestation, many degraded areas of today's tropics will require human assistance to recover forest structure, species composition, and species interactions typical of mature tropical forests.

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Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances

Abstract

Forest Ecology and Management

Forest Ecology and Management

Quaternary International

Forest Ecology and Management

Forest Ecology and Management

Advances in Ecological Research

Forest Ecology and Management

Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Forest Ecology and Management

Forest Ecology and Management

Forest recovery in abandoned cattle pastures along an elevational gradient in northeastern Puerto Rico

Biotropica

Forest regeneration in a chronosequence of tropical abandoned pastures: Implications for restoration ecology

Restoration Ecology

The location and stability of rain forest boundaries in north-eastern Queensland, Australia

Journal of Biogeography

La forêt coloniale: les forêts de l'Afrique occidentale française

Annuales Academie des Sciences Coloniales

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Ecology

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Journal of Ecology

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Post-agriculture versus post-hurricane succession in southeastern Nicaraguan rain forest

Plant Ecology

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Journal of Tropical Ecology

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Tropical Ecology

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Journal of Ecology

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Journal of Vegetation Science

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Ethnobotany of woody species in second-growth, old-growth, and selectively logged forests of northeastern Costa Rica

Conservation Biology

Statistical methods for estimating species richness of woody regeneration in primary and secondary rain forests of NE Costa Rica

Abolishing virginity

Journal of Tropical Ecology

Landscape-scale analyses of forest structure and understory light environments in a neotropical lowland rain forest

Canadian Journal of Forest Research

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Ecology

Positive feedbacks in the fire dynamic of closed canopy tropical forests

Science

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Biotropica

Assessing the response of plant functional types in tropical forests to climatic change

Journal of Vegetation Science

Predicting population trends from size distributions: a direct test in a tropical tree community

The American Naturalist

Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs

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Journal of Tropical Forest Science

The ecological transformation of Singapore, 1819–1990

Journal of Biogeography

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Progress in Physical Geography

Selective logging effects on abundance, diversity, and composition of tropical understory herbs

Ecological Applications

Impact of El Niño and logging on canopy tree recruitment in Borneo

Science

Soil seed bank composition along a forest chronosequence in seasonally moist tropical forest, Panama

Journal of Vegetation Science

Seed size, growth rate and gap microsite conditions as determinants of recruitment success for pioneer species

Journal of Ecology

Does reduced-impact logging help preserve biodiversity in tropical rainforests? A case study from Borneo using dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) as indicators

Environmental Entomology

Heterogeneity in early tropical rainforest regeneration after cutting and burning: ARBOCEL, French Guiana