[1] Little is known about the tropical forests that undergo clearing as urban/built-up and other developed lands spread. This study uses remote sensing-based maps of Puerto Rico, multinomial logit models and forest inventory data to explain patterns of forest age and the age of forests cleared for land development and assess their implications for forest carbon storage and tree species richness. Accessibility, arability and spatial contagion emerge strongly as overriding spatial controls on tropical forest age, determining (1) the pattern of agricultural abandonment that permits forest regrowth, and (2) where humans leave old-growth forest remnants. Covariation between the factors patterning forest age and land development explains why most forest cleared for land development is younger. Forests are increasingly younger in more accessible and fertile areas where agriculture has lasted longer and land development is most common. All else equal, more species-rich older forest on less arable lands are somewhat less likely to undergo development, but they are still vulnerable to clearing for land development if close to urban centers and unprotected. Accounting for forest age leads to a 19% lower estimate of forest biomass cleared for land development than if forest age is not accounted for.Citation: Helmer, E. H., T. J. Brandeis, A. E. Lugo, and T. Kennaway (2008), Factors influencing spatial pattern in tropical forest clearance and stand age: Implications for carbon storage and species diversity,
Extensive vegetation inventories established with a probabilistic design are an indispensable tool in describing distributions of species and community types and detecting changes in composition in response to climate or other drivers. The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program measures vegetation in permanent plots on forested lands across the United States of America (GIVD ID NA-US-001). Plot sizes and protocols for measuring tree species are standardized across the country. Additional standardized protocols have been implemented to measure the abundance of non-tree vascular plant and epiphytic lichen species. Research using this and related regional datasets have provided new insights into the key biophysical drivers of community composition and their importance at different spatial scales. Studies have also explored regional differences in species diversity patterns, documented the importance of non-native species, and described the importance of environment and management on the distribution of selected species. Although representation of locally rare community types may be low, the probabilistic sample ensures that ecological drivers are regionally significant and that results are representative of a region as a whole. Remeasurement of permanent plots provides direct evidence of vegetation change and enables detection of impacts due to climate, natural disturbance, and forest management.
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