Tropical Dry Forest Succession and the Contribution of Lianas to Wood Area Index (WAI)

The transmission and interception of light through the canopy is an important indicator of forest productivity in tropical forest ecosystems, and the amount of light that eventually reaches the forest floor is influenced by its interactions with leaves, branches, fruits, and flowers among many different canopy elements. While most studies of forest canopy light interception focus on leaf area index (LAI), very few studies have examined wood area index (WAI), which may account for a substantial component of light interception in tropical forests. The influence of lianas on the interception of light and their overall contribution to WAI is a potentially important factor, but it is generally overlooked because of its difficulty to assess. In this paper we evaluate the relative contribution that lianas have to the overall WAI and canopy openness as function of successional stage via a latitudinal comparison of sites across the Americas (Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil). Our results suggest that lianas significantly increase WAI and decreases canopy openness. However, lianas were absent at all of our study sites where canopy openness exceeded 60%. Our data are the first to explicitly document the role of lianas in the estimation of WAI and, overall, they will contribute to better estimations of ecosystem level LAI in tropical environments, where there is a lack of data on WAI

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