Publications by authors named "B Finegan"
Article Synopsis
- Secondary tropical forests are vital for carbon storage and biodiversity, making it necessary to understand their growth patterns for effective restoration and climate change strategies.
- The study analyzed demographic information from over 500 tree species across different stages of forest succession in various climates to determine the range of demographic strategies (growth, mortality, recruitment rates) present.
- Findings indicate that early successional forests already exhibit the full range of demographic strategies found in old-growth forests, suggesting that known diversity from old-growth studies can apply broadly, but additional research in secondary forests is still needed.
Soil resistance and recovery during neotropical forest succession.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
January 2023
Article Synopsis
- Soil conditions are key for ecosystem restoration, influencing how well ecosystems recover after agricultural use and deforestation.
- Soil resistance and recovery vary based on local factors like climate and soil type; for example, areas with high-activity clay show significant changes in soil properties when forested land is converted to cropland.
- Findings suggest that while some soil properties improve during forest regrowth, others like phosphorus levels may decline, highlighting the complex dynamics of soil health in tropical ecosystems.
Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristic groups, with a between-group dissimilarity of 0.97. Floristic groups were associated with location, bioregions, soil pH, temperature seasonality, and water availability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTropical forests disappear rapidly because of deforestation, yet they have the potential to regrow naturally on abandoned lands. We analyze how 12 forest attributes recover during secondary succession and how their recovery is interrelated using 77 sites across the tropics. Tropical forests are highly resilient to low-intensity land use; after 20 years, forest attributes attain 78% (33 to 100%) of their old-growth values.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional recovery of secondary tropical forests.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
December 2021
One-third of all Neotropical forests are secondary forests that regrow naturally after agricultural use through secondary succession. We need to understand better how and why succession varies across environmental gradients and broad geographic scales. Here, we analyze functional recovery using community data on seven plant characteristics (traits) of 1,016 forest plots from 30 chronosequence sites across the Neotropics.
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