Mitigation needs adaptation: tropical forestry and climate change

The relationship between tropical forests and global climate change has so far focused on mitigation, while much less emphasis has been placed on how management activities may help forest ecosystems adapt to this change. This paper discusses how tropical forestry practices can contribute to maintaining or enhancing the adaptive capacity of natural and planted forests to global climate change and considers challenges and opportunities for the integration of tropical forest management in broader climate change adaptation. In addition to the use of reduced impact logging to maintain ecosystem integrity, other approaches may be needed, such as fire prevention and management, as well as specific silvicultural options aimed at facilitating genetic adaptation. In the case of planted forests, the normally higher intensity of management (with respect to natural forest) offers additional opportunities for implementing adaptation measures, at both industrial and smallholder levels. Although the integration in forest management of measures aimed at enhancing adaptation to climate change may not involve substantial additional effort with respect to current practice, little action appears to have been taken to date. Tropical foresters and forest-dependent communities appear not to appreciate the risks posed by climate change and, for those who are aware of them, practical guidance on how to respond is largely non-existent. The extent to which forestry research and national policies will promote and adopt management practices in order to assist production forests adapt to climate change is currently uncertain. Mainstreaming adaptation into national development and planning programs may represent an initial step towards the incorporation of climate change considerations into tropical forestry

Replication Data for: Using visible-near-infrared spectroscopy to classify lichens at a Neotropical Dry Forest

This is the unprocessed spectra of lichens and their bark. In the excel file there are three sheets: i) IDs for species and samples, ii) lichen spectra, and iii) bark spectra. The link between samples and sheets is based on 'ID_sample'

Composição florística e análise fitogeográfica de uma floresta semidecídua na Bahia, Brasil

The semideciduous forests of Bahia occur as highly fragmented areas and have only received a little attention from floristic and phytogeographical studies. These areas are mainly situated within the semi-arid region and isolated from the Coastal Atlantic Forest by the surrounding dry vegetation of the caatinga domain. This paper presents a floristic survey of a semideciduous forest fragment at Serra da Fazenda Retiro (SFR), Feira de Santana, Bahia State, in order to assess its phytogeographical relationships in comparison to caatinga vegetation and Atlantic Forest. The survey identified 173 species belonging to 143 genera and 59 families. Myrtaceae presented the highest species number (15 spp.), followed by Euphorbiaceae (13), Leguminosae (12), Malvaceae (7), Orchidaceae (7), and Rubiaceae (7). Additionally, three new species of the genera Neomarica (Iridaceae), Pseudobombax (Malvaceae), and Solanum (Solanaceae) were sampled. In spite of the studied area being located within the circumscription of the Caatinga Biome, analysis of similarity (UPGMA) and of the SFR species composition showed that it is more floristically related to semideciduous forest of the Atlantic Forest domain rather than to caatinga vegetation. © 2009 Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro. All Rights Reserved