Publications by authors named "Paulo E S Massoca"
Article Synopsis
- Tropical forests are rapidly converted for agriculture but can regrow naturally through processes called secondary succession, which vary by forest type.
- Analysis of 1,403 plots across the Neotropics reveals that in wet forests, succession moves from low to high wood density, while in dry forests, it goes from high to low due to different environmental stresses.
- Understanding these patterns can help optimize species selection for reforestation efforts by matching the wood density of chosen species to that of early successional communities in the specific climate conditions.
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.
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