Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance
The time taken for forested tropical ecosystems to re-establish post-disturbance is of widespread interest. Yet to date there has been no comparative study across tropical biomes to determine rates of forest re-growth, and how they vary through space and time. Here we present results from a meta-ana...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2014
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| _version_ | 1797075686432702464 |
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| author | Cole, L Bhagwat, S Willis, K |
| author_facet | Cole, L Bhagwat, S Willis, K |
| author_sort | Cole, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The time taken for forested tropical ecosystems to re-establish post-disturbance is of widespread interest. Yet to date there has been no comparative study across tropical biomes to determine rates of forest re-growth, and how they vary through space and time. Here we present results from a meta-analysis of palaeoecological records that use fossil pollen as a proxy for vegetation change over the past 20,000 years. A total of 283 forest disturbance and recovery events, reported in 71 studies, are identified across four tropical regions. Results indicate that forests in Central America and Africa generally recover faster from past disturbances than those in South America and Asia, as do forests exposed to natural large infrequent disturbances compared with post-climatic and human impacts. Results also demonstrate that increasing frequency of disturbance events at a site through time elevates recovery rates, indicating a degree of resilience in forests exposed to recurrent past disturbance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:53:46Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:73828c22-1db0-4ea4-b85a-e9031c17390a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:53:46Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:73828c22-1db0-4ea4-b85a-e9031c17390a2022-03-26T19:56:56ZRecovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbanceJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:73828c22-1db0-4ea4-b85a-e9031c17390aEcologyEnglishORA DepositNature Publishing Group2014Cole, LBhagwat, SWillis, KThe time taken for forested tropical ecosystems to re-establish post-disturbance is of widespread interest. Yet to date there has been no comparative study across tropical biomes to determine rates of forest re-growth, and how they vary through space and time. Here we present results from a meta-analysis of palaeoecological records that use fossil pollen as a proxy for vegetation change over the past 20,000 years. A total of 283 forest disturbance and recovery events, reported in 71 studies, are identified across four tropical regions. Results indicate that forests in Central America and Africa generally recover faster from past disturbances than those in South America and Asia, as do forests exposed to natural large infrequent disturbances compared with post-climatic and human impacts. Results also demonstrate that increasing frequency of disturbance events at a site through time elevates recovery rates, indicating a degree of resilience in forests exposed to recurrent past disturbance. |
| spellingShingle | Ecology Cole, L Bhagwat, S Willis, K Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title | Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title_full | Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title_fullStr | Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title_short | Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| title_sort | recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance |
| topic | Ecology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT colel recoveryandresilienceoftropicalforestsafterdisturbance AT bhagwats recoveryandresilienceoftropicalforestsafterdisturbance AT willisk recoveryandresilienceoftropicalforestsafterdisturbance |