IIBYT   23944
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLOGICAS Y TECNOLOGICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Forest recovery of areas deforested by fire increases with elevation in the tropical Andes.
Autor/es:
LIPPOK, D; BECK S.G.; RENISON, D.; GALLEGOS S.C.; SAAVEDRA, F.V.; HENSEN, I.
Revista:
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
Editorial:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 295 p. 69 - 76
ISSN:
0378-1127
Resumen:
To accelerate the recovery of tropical montane forests which have been deforested it is important to know the processes that drive secondary succession, but studies are still rare. Two important filters potentially causing a delay in the recovery of these forests are the declining seed rain with distance from forest edge (seed dispersal limitation) and the altered environmental conditions at deforested sites. Moreover, successional pathways along elevation gradients can differ, but controlling factors are poorly understood. We sampled woody secondary vegetation ≥ 1 m tall at 20 and 80 m from the forest edge in eight sites deforested by fires situated in the Bolivian Andes along an elevation gradient from 1950 m to 2500 m asl. Our response variables were basal area, density, species richness and composition. Additionally, we measured soil properties, light conditions and micro climate in the deforested sites and adjacent forest interior. Non-forest and forest species comprised 81 and 19 % of the registered individuals, respectively. Unexpectedly, basal area, density and species richness of both forest and non-forest species were higher at sites away than near the forest edge, and all three response variables increased with increasing elevation (most P values < 0.05). The increase with elevation was more pronounced for forest than non-forest species. Thus, our data did not confirm seed dispersal limitation for the studied woody species and provides evidence that environmental conditions get milder at higher altitudes possibly due to a cooler and wetter microclimate and a lower frequency of fires which inhibit forest regeneration. Our findings also highlight that environmental changes with elevation are crucial for understanding capabilities of forest recovery in mountain ecosystems and implies that natural forest recovery may be further reduced if maximum temperatures are going to increase in the tropical Andes in the near future.