Environmental gradients and the evolution of successional habitat specialization: A test case with 14 Neotropical forest sites

© 2015 British Ecological Society. Successional gradients are ubiquitous in nature, yet few studies have systematically examined the evolutionary origins of taxa that specialize at different successional stages. Here we quantify successional habitat specialization in Neotropical forest trees and evaluate its evolutionary lability along a precipitation gradient. Theoretically, successional habitat specialization should be more evolutionarily conserved in wet forests than in dry forests due to more extreme microenvironmental differentiation between early and late-successional stages in wet forest. We applied a robust multinomial classification model to samples of primary and secondary forest trees from 14 Neotropical lowland forest sites spanning a precipitation gradient from 788 to 4000 mm annual rainfall, identifying species that are old-growth specialists and secondary forest specialists in each site. We constructed phylogenies for the classified taxa at each site and for the entire set of classified taxa and tested whether successional habitat specialization is phylogenetically conserved. We further investigated differences in the functional traits of species specializing in secondary vs. old-growth forest along the precipitation gradient, expecting different trait associations with secondary forest specialists in wet vs. dry forests since water availability is more limiting in dry forests and light availability more limiting in wet forests. Successional habitat specialization is non-randomly distributed in the angiosperm phylogeny, with a tendency towards phylogenetic conservatism overall and a trend towards stronger conservatism in wet forests than in dry forests. However, the specialists come from all the major branches of the angiosperm phylogeny, and very few functional traits showed any consistent relationships with successional habitat specialization in either wet or dry forests. Synthesis. The niche conservatism evident in the habitat specialization of Neotropical trees suggests a role for radiation into different successional habitats in the evolution of species-rich genera, though the diversity of functional traits that lead to success in different successional habitats complicates analyses at the community scale. Examining the distribution of particular lineages with respect to successional gradients may provide more insight into the role of successional habitat specialization in the evolution of species-rich taxa

Biodiversity recovery of Neotropical secondary forests

Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance in an unprecedented multisite analysis for the Neotropics. Secondary forests recover remarkably fast in species richness but slowly in species composition. Secondary forests take a median time of five decades to recover the species richness of old-growth forest (80% recovery after 20 years) based on rarefaction analysis. Full recovery of species composition takes centuries (only 34% recovery after 20 years). A dual strategy that maintains both old-growth forests and species-rich secondary forests is therefore crucial for biodiversity conservation in human-modified tropical landscapes. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved

Carbon sequestration potential of second-growth forest regeneration in the Latin American tropics

Regrowth of tropical secondary forests following complete or nearly complete removal of forest vegetation actively stores carbon in aboveground biomass, partially counterbalancing carbon emissions from deforestation, forest degradation, burning of fossil fuels, and other anthropogenic sources. We estimate the age and spatial extent of lowland second-growth forests in the Latin American tropics and model their potential aboveground carbon accumulation over four decades. Our model shows that, in 2008, second-growth forests (1 to 60 years old) covered 2.4 million km2 of land (28.1%of the total study area).Over 40 years, these lands can potentially accumulate a total aboveground carbon stock of 8.48 Pg C (petagrams of carbon) in aboveground biomass via low-cost natural regeneration or assisted regeneration, corresponding to a total CO2 sequestration of 31.09 Pg CO2. This total is equivalent to carbon emissions from fossil fuel use and industrial processes in all of Latin America and the Caribbean from1993 to 2014. Ten countries account for 95% of this carbon storage potential, led by Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. We model future land-use scenarios to guide national carbon mitigation policies. Permitting natural regeneration on 40% of lowland pastures potentially stores an additional 2.0 Pg C over 40 years. Our study provides information and maps to guide national-level forest-based carbon mitigation plans on the basis of estimated rates of natural regeneration and pasture abandonment. Coupled with avoided deforestation and sustainable forestmanagement, natural regeneration of second-growth forests provides a low-costmechanism that yields a high carbon sequestration potential with multiple benefits for biodiversity and ecosystem services. © 2016 The Authors

Cultura y droga (Año 22 no. 24 ene-dic 2017)

La Revista Cultura y Droga de la Facultad de ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, es una publicación científica de acceso abierto sin cobro de APC (Article Processing Charge), editada y financiada por la Universidad de Caldas, que circula semestralmente en el ámbito nacional e internacional en formato impreso y digital (PDF). La Revista, recibe artículos en inglés, portugués y español sobre publicaciones originales e inéditas que contribuyan al avance del conocimiento y a la discusión académico-científica sobre la relación cultura y droga. Acoge artículos de diversas disciplinas: sociales y humanas, naturales, médicas, artísticas, filosóficas, botánicas, así como, conocimientos indígenas tradicionales.EDITORIAL Manuel Ignacio Moreno-Ospina PRODUCCIÓN CIENTÍFICA E INTELECTUAL / SCIENTIFIC AND INTELLECTUAL PRODUCTION RÚSTICOS E CIVILIZADOS: EMBRIAGUEZ INDÍGENA E AÇÕES POLÍTICAS NA AMAZÔNIA DO SÉCULO XVIII RUSTIC AND CIVILIZED: INDIGENOUS DRUNKENNESS AND POLITICAL ACTIONS IN THE AMAZON OF THE 18TH CENTURY Cauê Tanan ANTROPOLOGÍA, PSICOLOGÍA Y ESTADOS ALTERADOS DE CONCIENCIA. UNA REVISIÓN CRÍTICA DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA INTERDISCIPLINARIA ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY AND ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. A CRITICAL REVIEW FROM AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE Ismael Eduardo Apud-Peláez DENOMINACIONES INDÍGENAS DE LA MARIHUANA EN MÉXICO. INVESTIGACIÓN DOCUMENTAL DE LA RELACIÓN ENTRE EL PIPILTZINTZINTLI Y LA PLANTA DE CANNABIS (SIGLOS XVI-XIX) INDIGENOUS DENOMINATIONS OF THE MARIJUANA IN MEXICO. DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PIPILTZINTZINTLI AND THE CANNABIS PLANT (XVI-XIX CENTURIES) Oliver Ramos-Gómez, Nidia Andrea Olvera-Hernández, José Domingo Schievenini-Stefanoni TZÍMAN Y LAHAX: EL PEYOTE Y EL TOLOACHE COMO ADVOCACIONES CULTURALES PARA LA REGIÓN HUASTECA, MÉXICO TZIMMAN AND LAHAX: PEYOTE AND TOLOACHE AS CULTURAL ADVOCATIONS FOR THE HUASTECA REGION, MEXICO Joaquín Muñoz-Mendoza ENSAMBLAJES GLOBALES Y REDUCCIÓN DE DAÑO: APUNTES EN TORNO A LA LUCHA ANTIDROGA Y AL MOVIMIENTO ANTIPROHIBICIONISTA GLOBAL ASSEMBLAGE AND HARM REDUCTION: NOTES ON ANTI-DRUG STRUGGLE AND ANTI-PROHIBITIONIST MOVEMENT Ramiro E. Borja-Martínez, Andrés Góngora-Sierra, Carlos Sánchez-González MANIFESTACIONES SOCIOPSICOLÓGICAS DEL CARÁCTER FRENTE AL CONSUMO COMPULSIVO DE BAZUCO SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CHARACTER AGAINST COMPULSIVE CONSUMPTION OF BAZUCO Carlos Enrique Correa-Lago

Data from: Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests

This dataset summarizes demographic rates, abundances and basal area across a succession of ~800 (sub) tropical tree species to explore generalities in demographic trade-offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across four Neotropical forests that cover a large rainfall gradient. We used repeated forest inventory data from chronosequences in two wet (Costa Rica, Panama) and two dry forests (Yucatán, Oaxaca, both Mexico) to quantify demographic rates of ~800 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade-offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that accounts for differences in sample size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young (\u3c5 years) to old-growth forests. This dataset provides raw and transformed demographic rates, their weights in the weighted PCA, assignments to demographic groups, and forest inventory data at the species level, as well as the code for performing the weighted PCA

Tree demographic strategies largely overlap across succession in Neotropical wet and dry forest communities

Secondary tropical forests play an increasingly important role in carbon budgets and biodiversity conservation. Understanding successional trajectories is therefore imperative for guiding forest restoration and climate change mitigation efforts. Forest succession is driven by the demographic strategies-combinations of growth, mortality and recruitment rates-of the tree species in the community. However, our understanding of demographic diversity in tropical tree species stems almost exclusively from old-growth forests. Here, we assembled demographic information from repeated forest inventories along chronosequences in two wet (Costa Rica, Panama) and two dry (Mexico) Neotropical forests to assess whether the ranges of demographic strategies present in a community shift across succession. We calculated demographic rates for >500 tree species while controlling for canopy status to compare demographic diversity (i.e., the ranges of demographic strategies) in early successional (0-30 years), late successional (30-120 years) and old-growth forests using two-dimensional hypervolumes of pairs of demographic rates. Ranges of demographic strategies largely overlapped across successional stages, and early successional stages already covered the full spectrum of demographic strategies found in old-growth forests. An exception was a group of species characterized by exceptionally high mortality rates that was confined to early successional stages in the two wet forests. The range of demographic strategies did not expand with succession. Our results suggest that studies of long-term forest monitoring plots in old-growth forests, from which most of our current understanding of demographic strategies of tropical tree species is derived, are surprisingly representative of demographic diversity in general, but do not replace the need for further studies in secondary forests.ISSN:0012-9658ISSN:1939-917

Data from: Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests

See Rüger et al. in revision. Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography The file ‘weightedPCA.R’ contains an implementation of the weighted principal component analysis described in Delchambre, L. 2014. Weighted principal component analysis: a weighted covariance eigendecomposition approach. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 446(2), 3545-3555.,This dataset summarizes demographic rates, abundances and basal area across a succession of ~800 (sub) tropical tree species to explore generalities in demographic trade-offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across four Neotropical forests that cover a large rainfall gradient. We used repeated forest inventory data from chronosequences in two wet (Costa Rica, Panama) and two dry forests (Yucatán, Oaxaca, both Mexico) to quantify demographic rates of ~800 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade-offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that accounts for differences in sample size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young (\u3c5 years) to old-growth forests. This dataset provides raw and transformed demographic rates, their weights in the weighted PCA, assignments to demographic groups, and forest inventory data at the species level, as well as the code for performing the weighted PCA

Soil resistance and recovery during neotropical forest succession

The recovery of soil conditions is crucial for successful ecosystem restoration and, hence, for achieving the goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Here, we assess how soils resist forest conversion and agricultural land use, and how soils recover during subsequent tropical forest succession on abandoned agricultural fields. Our overarching question is how soil resistance and recovery depend on local conditions such as climate, soil type and land-use history. For 300 plots in 21 sites across the Neotropics, we used a chronosequence approach in which we sampled soils from two depths in old-growth forests, agricultural fields (i.e. crop fields and pastures), and secondary forests that differ in age (1-95 years) since abandonment. We measured six soil properties using a standardized sampling design and laboratory analyses. Soil resistance strongly depended on local conditions. Croplands and sites on high-activity clay (i.e. high fertility) show strong increases in bulk density and decreases in pH, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) during deforestation and subsequent agricultural use. Resistance is lower in such sites probably because of a sharp decline in fine root biomass in croplands in the upper soil layers, and a decline in litter input from formerly productive old-growth forest (on high-activity clays). Soil recovery also strongly depended on local conditions. During forest succession, high-activity clays and croplands decreased most strongly in bulk density and increased in C and N, possibly because of strongly compacted soils with low C and N after cropland abandonment, and because of rapid vegetation recovery in high-activity clays leading to greater fine root growth and litter input. Furthermore, sites at low precipitation decreased in pH, whereas sites at high precipitation increased in N and decreased in C : N ratio. Extractable phosphorus (P) did not recover during succession, suggesting increased P limitation as forests age. These results indicate that no single solution exists for effective soil restoration and that local site conditions should determine the restoration strategies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.ISSN:1471-2970ISSN:0962-843

Soil resistance and recovery during Neotropical forest succession

The recovery of soil conditions is crucial for successful ecosystem restoration and, hence, for achieving the goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Here, we assess how soils resist forest conversion and agricultural land use, and how soils recover during subsequent tropical forest succession on abandoned agricultural fields. Our overarching question is how soil resistance and recovery depend on local conditions such as climate, soil type, and land-use history. For 300 plots in 21 sites across the Neotropics, we used a chonosequence approach in which we sampled soils from two depths in old-growth forests, agricultural fields (i.e., crop fields and pastures), and secondary forests that differ in age (1-95 years) since abandonment. We measured six soil properties using a standardized sampling design and lab analyses. Soil resistance strongly depended on local conditions. Croplands and sites on high-activity clay (i.e. high fertility) show strong increases in bulk density, and decreases in pH, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) during deforestation and subsequent agricultural use. Resistance is lower in such sites probably because of a sharp decline in fine root biomass in croplands in the upper soil layers, and a decline in litter input from formerly productive old-growth forest (on high-activity clays). Soil recovery also strongly depended on local conditions. During forest succession, high-activity clays and croplands decreased most strongly in bulk density and increased in C and N, possibly because of strongly compacted soils with low C and N after cropland abandonment, and because of rapid vegetation recovery in high-activity clays leading to greater fine root growth and litter input. Furthermore, sites at low precipitation decreased in pH, whereas sites at high precipitation increased in N and decreased in C:N ratio. Extractable phosphorus (P) did not recover during succession, suggesting increased P limitation as forests age. These results indicate that no single solution exists for effective soil restoration, and that local site conditions should determine the restoration strategies

Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics

Abandonment of agricultural lands promotes the global expansion of secondary forests, which are critical for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. Such roles largely depend, however, on two essential successional attributes, trajectory and recovery rate, which are expected to depend on landscape-scale forest cover in nonlinear ways. Using a multi-scale approach and a large vegetation dataset (843 plots, 3511 tree species) from 22 secondary forest chronosequences distributed across the Neotropics, we show that successional trajectories of woody plant species richness, stem density and basal area are less predictable in landscapes (4 km radius) with intermediate (40–60%) forest cover than in landscapes with high (greater than 60%) forest cover. This supports theory suggesting that high spatial and environmental heterogeneity in intermediately deforested landscapes can increase the variation of key ecological factors for forest recovery (e.g. seed dispersal and seedling recruitment), increasing the uncertainty of successional trajectories. Regarding the recovery rate, only species richness is positively related to forest cover in relatively small (1 km radius) landscapes. These findings highlight the importance of using a spatially explicit landscape approach in restoration initiatives and suggest that these initiatives can be more effective in more forested landscapes, especially if implemented across spatial extents of 1–4 km radius