Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology >
Vegetation recovery dynamics of tropical lowland rain forest in Bawangling of Hainan Island, South China
Received date: 2011-01-11
Accepted date: 2011-02-14
Online published: 2011-06-07
Aims Our objective was to elucidate the trajectory and pattern of tree succession on lands abandoned after multiple cycles of shifting cultivation in comparison to old-growth communities.
Methods We established seven 100 m × 100 m plots in lowland sites. There were two old-growth forest plots, one 12-year-old fallow plot, two 25-year-old fallow plots, and two 55-year-old fallow plots. We recorded species, diameter at breast height (DBH), and height of all woody stems (excluding lianas) ≥1 cm DBH in 100 subplots (10 m × 10 m) in each plot. Analysis methods included non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS).
Important findings NMS showed large differences in community composition between fallow and old-growth forest, even after 55 years of natural recovery. Saplings (DBH < 5 cm) showed more convergence with old-growth forest composition than did adult trees (DBH ≥10 cm). Species accumulation rates for all three ages of fallow plots were slower than for old-growth forests. The recovery of community structure was relatively faster, especially for tree height, but structural complexity did not reach that of old-growth forests. Sprouting stems accounted for 39.9% of density and 55.9% of basal area in the 12-year-old fallow plot, but less in older plots. The proportion of three functional groups (pioneer, non-pioneer light-demanding and shade-tolerant species) showed directional patterns of change during succession, indicating that pattern of recovery was determined by life-history traits. However, cessation of recovery during mid succession indicated that return to pre-disturbance species composition may take centuries or never occur. This should be considered when structuring successional models and predicting carbon accumulation in tropical forest.
DING Yi, ZANG Run-Guo . Vegetation recovery dynamics of tropical lowland rain forest in Bawangling of Hainan Island, South China[J]. Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 2011 , 35(5) : 577 -586 . DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.00577
| [1] | Aide TM, Zimmerman JK, Pascarella JB, Rivera L, Marcano- Vega H (2000). Forest regeneration in a chron- osequence of tropical abandoned pastures: implications for restora- tion ecology. Restoration Ecology, 8, 328-338. |
| [2] | Bond WJ, Midgley JJ (2001). Ecology of sprouting in woody plants: the persistence niche. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 16, 45-51. |
| [3] | Bongers F, Poorter L, Hawthorne WD, Sheil D (2009). The intermediate disturbance hypothesis applies to tropical forests, but disturbance contributes little to tree diversity. Ecology Letters, 12, 798-805. |
| [4] | Brooks TM, Wright SJ, Sheil D (2009). Evaluating the success of conservation actions in safeguarding tropical forest biodiversity. Conservation Biology, 23, 1448-1457. |
| [5] | Brown S, Lugo AE (1990). Tropical secondary forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 6, 1-32. |
| [6] | Chazdon RL (2003). Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 6, 51-71. |
| [7] | Chazdon RL (2008a). Beyond deforestation: restoring forests and ecosystem services on degraded lands. Science, 320, 1458-1460. |
| [8] | Chazdon RL (2008b). Chance and determinism in tropical forest succession. In: Carson WP, Schnitzer SA eds. Tropical Forest Community Ecology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. 384-408. |
| [9] | Chazdon RL, Finegan B, Capers RS, Salgado-Negret B, Casanoves F, Boukili V, Norden N (2010). Composition and dynamics of functional groups of trees during tropical forest succession in northeastern Costa Rica. Biotropica, 42, 31-40. |
| [10] | Chazdon R, Letcher S, van Breugel M, Martínez-Ramos M, Bongers F, Finegan B (2007). Rates of change in tree communities of secondary neotropical forests following major disturbances. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362, 273-289. |
| [11] | Ding Y, Zang RG (2005). Community characteristics of early recovery vegetation on abandoned lands of shifting cultivation in Bawangling of Hainan Island, South China. Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 47, 530-538. |
| [12] | Ding Y, Zang RG, Jiang YX (2006). Effect of hillslope gradient on vegetation recovery on abandoned land of shifting cultivation in Hainan Island, South China. Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, 48, 642-653. |
| [13] | Ding Y (丁易), Zang RG (臧润国) (2008). Changes in deciduous trees during recovery of tropical lowland rain forests on abandoned shifting cultivation lands in Hainan Island, South China. Biodiversity Science (生物多样性), 16, 103-109. (in Chinese with English abstract) |
| [14] | Finegan B (1996). Pattern and process in neotropical secondary rain forests: the first 100 years of succession. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 11, 119-124. |
| [15] | Gehring C, Denich M, Vlek PLG (2005). Resilience of secondary forest regrowth after slash-and-burn agriculture in central Amazonia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 21, 519-527. |
| [16] | Guariguata MR, Chazdon RL, Denslow JS, Dupuy JM, Anderson L (1997). Structure and floristic of secondary and old-growth forest stands in lowland Costa Rica. Plant Ecology, 132, 107-120. |
| [17] | Guariguata MR, Ostertag R (2001). Neotropical secondary forest succession: changes in structural and functional characteristics. Forest Ecology and Management, 148, 185-206. |
| [18] | Kammesheidt L (1998). The role of tree sprouts in the restoration of stand structure and species diversity in tropical moist forest after slash-and-burn agriculture in Eastern Paraguay. Plant Ecology, 139, 155-165. |
| [19] | Lamb D, Erskine PD, Parrotta JA (2005). Restoration of degraded tropical forest landscapes. Science, 310, 1628-1632. |
| [20] | Lawrence D (2005). Biomass accumulation after 10-200 years of shifting cultivation in Bornean rain forest. Ecology, 86, 26-33. |
| [21] | Lawrence D, Suma V, Mogea JP (2005). Change in species composition with repeated shifting cultivation: limited role of soil nutrients. Ecological Applications, 15, 1952-1967. |
| [22] | Lebrija-Trejos E, Meave JA, Poorter L, Pérez-García EA, Bongers F (2010). Pathways, mechanisms and predicta- bility of vegetation change during tropical dry forest succession. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 12, 267-275. |
| [23] | Letcher SG, Chazdon RL (2009a). Lianas and self-supporting plants during tropical forest succession. Forest Ecology and Management, 257, 2150-2156. |
| [24] | Letcher SG, Chazdon RL (2009b). Rapid recovery of biomass, species richness, and species composition in a secondary forest chronosequence in northeastern Costa Rica. Biotropica, 41, 608-617. |
| [25] | Lewis SL, Lloyd J, Sitch S, Mitchard ETA, Laurance WF (2009). Changing ecology of tropical forests: evidence and drivers. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 40, 529-549. |
| [26] | Marcano-Vega H, Aide TM, Báez D (2002). Forest regeneration in abandoned coffee plantations and pastures in the Cordillera Central of Puerto Rico. Plant Ecology, 161, 75-87. |
| [27] | Martínez-Garza C, Howe HF (2003). Restoring tropical diversity: beating the time tax on species loss. Journal of Applied Ecology, 40, 423-429. |
| [28] | Mesquita RCG, Ickes K, Ganade G, Williamson GB (2001). Alternative successional pathways in the Amazon Basin. Journal of Ecology, 89, 528-537. |
| [29] | Norden N, Chazdon RL, Chao A, Jiang YH, Vílchez-Alvarado B (2009). Resilience of tropical rain forests: tree community reassembly in secondary forests. Ecology Letters, 12, 385-394. |
| [30] | Palomaki MB, Chazdon RL, Arroyo JP, Letcher SG (2006). Juvenile tree growth in relation to light availability in second-growth tropical rain forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 22, 223-226. |
| [31] | Pascarella JB, Aide TM, Serrano MI, Zimmerman JK (2000). Land-use history and forest regeneration in the Cayey Mountains, Puerto Rico. Ecosystems, 3, 217-218. |
| [32] | Peterson CJ, Carson WP (2008). Processes constraining woody species succession on abandoned pastures in the tropical: on the relevance of temperate models of succession. In: Carson WP, Schnitzer SA eds. Tropical Forest Comm- unity Ecology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. 367-383. |
| [33] | R Development Core Team (2010). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. |
| [34] | Saldarriaga JG, West DC, Tharp ML, Uhl C (1988). Long-term chronosequence of forest succession in the Upper Rio Negro of Colombia and Venezuela. Journal of Ecology, 76, 938-958. |
| [35] | The Biodiversity Committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院生物多样性委员会) (2010). Catalogue of Life China: 2010 Annual Checklist China (中国生物物种名录: 2010版). CD-ROM; Species 2000 China Node, Beijing. |
| [36] | Uhl C (1987). Factors controlling succession following slash-and-burn agriculture in Amazonia. Journal of Ecology, 75, 377-407. |
| [37] | Uhl C, Clark H, Clark K, Maguirino P (1982). Successional patterns associated with slash-and-burn agriculture in the Upper Río Negro region of the Amazon Basin. Biotropica, 14, 249-254. |
| [38] | Vandermeer J, Granzow de la Cerda I, Perfecto I, Boucher D, Ruiz J, Kaufmann A (2004). Multiple basins of attraction in a tropical forest: evidence for a nonequilibrium community structure. Ecology, 85, 575-579. |
| [39] | Vieira DLM, Scariot A (2006). Principles of natural regeneration of tropical dry forests for restoration. Restoration Ecology, 14, 11-20. |
| [40] | Zang RG (臧润国), An SQ (安树青), Tao JP (陶建平), Jiang YX (蒋有绪), Wang BS (王伯荪) (2004). Mechanism of Biodiversity Maintenance of Tropical Forests on Hainan Island (海南岛热带林生物多样性维持机制). Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese) |
| [41] | Zang RG (臧润国), Ding Y (丁易), Zhang ZD (张志东), Deng FY (邓福英), Mao PL (毛培利) (2010). Ecological Foundation of Conservation and Restoration for the Major Functional Groups in Tropical Natural Forests on Hainan Island (海南岛热带天然林主要功能群保护与恢复的生态学基础). Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese) |
/
| 〈 |
|
〉 |
Copyright © 2026 Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology
Tel: 010-62836134, 62836138, E-mail: apes@ibcas.ac.cn, cjpe@ibcas.ac.cn
