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. 2016 Feb 11;530(7589):211-4.
doi: 10.1038/nature16512. Epub 2016 Feb 3.

Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests

Lourens Poorter  1 Frans Bongers  1 T Mitchell Aide  2 Angélica M Almeyda Zambrano  3 Patricia Balvanera  4 Justin M Becknell  5 Vanessa Boukili  6 Pedro H S Brancalion  7 Eben N Broadbent  3 Robin L Chazdon  6 Dylan Craven  8   9   10 Jarcilene S de Almeida-Cortez  11 George A L Cabral  11 Ben H J de Jong  12 Julie S Denslow  13 Daisy H Dent  14   15 Saara J DeWalt  16 Juan M Dupuy  17 Sandra M Durán  18 Mario M Espírito-Santo  19 María C Fandino  20 Ricardo G César  7 Jefferson S Hall  8 José Luis Hernandez-Stefanoni  17 Catarina C Jakovac  1   21 André B Junqueira  22   23   24 Deborah Kennard  25 Susan G Letcher  26 Juan-Carlos Licona  27 Madelon Lohbeck  1   28 Erika Marín-Spiotta  29 Miguel Martínez-Ramos  4 Paulo Massoca  21 Jorge A Meave  30 Rita Mesquita  21 Francisco Mora  4   30 Rodrigo Muñoz  30 Robert Muscarella  31   32 Yule R F Nunes  19 Susana Ochoa-Gaona  12 Alexandre A de Oliveira  33 Edith Orihuela-Belmonte  12 Marielos Peña-Claros  1 Eduardo A Pérez-García  30 Daniel Piotto  34 Jennifer S Powers  35   36 Jorge Rodríguez-Velázquez  4 I Eunice Romero-Pérez  30 Jorge Ruíz  37   38 Juan G SaldarriagaArturo Sanchez-Azofeifa  18 Naomi B Schwartz  31 Marc K SteiningerNathan G Swenson  39 Marisol Toledo  27 Maria Uriarte  31 Michiel van Breugel  8   40   41 Hans van der Wal  42 Maria D M Veloso  19 Hans F M Vester  43   44 Alberto Vicentini  21 Ima C G Vieira  45 Tony Vizcarra Bentos  21 G Bruce Williamson  21   46 Danaë M A Rozendaal  1   6   47
Affiliations

Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests

Lourens Poorter et al. Nature. .

Abstract

Land-use change occurs nowhere more rapidly than in the tropics, where the imbalance between deforestation and forest regrowth has large consequences for the global carbon cycle. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the rate of biomass recovery in secondary forests, and how these rates are influenced by climate, landscape, and prior land use. Here we analyse aboveground biomass recovery during secondary succession in 45 forest sites and about 1,500 forest plots covering the major environmental gradients in the Neotropics. The studied secondary forests are highly productive and resilient. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years was on average 122 megagrams per hectare (Mg ha(-1)), corresponding to a net carbon uptake of 3.05 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1), 11 times the uptake rate of old-growth forests. Aboveground biomass stocks took a median time of 66 years to recover to 90% of old-growth values. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years varied 11.3-fold (from 20 to 225 Mg ha(-1)) across sites, and this recovery increased with water availability (higher local rainfall and lower climatic water deficit). We present a biomass recovery map of Latin America, which illustrates geographical and climatic variation in carbon sequestration potential during forest regrowth. The map will support policies to minimize forest loss in areas where biomass resilience is naturally low (such as seasonally dry forest regions) and promote forest regeneration and restoration in humid tropical lowland areas with high biomass resilience.

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