Long-term effect of selective logging on floristic composition: A 25 year experiment in the Brazilian Amazon

Gaui, Tatiana Dias; Costa, Flávia R. C.; Souza, Fernanda Coelho de; Amaral, Márcio Rogério Mota; Carvalho, Daniel Costa de; Reis, Francisco Quintiliano; Higuchi, Níro

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2019.02.033

Cited by 34 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Tree diversity was dramatically lower in abandoned sites relative to control plots, indicating that mining may have a considerable negative effect on species diversity. In Mahdia, the observed increase in mortality rates in Census I may be driven by the shift in floristic composition from low biomass species to light‐demanding fast‐growing pioneer species (Gaui et al., 2019). The almost non‐existent woody biomass recovery observed in the tailing ponds and mining pits is in line with primary succession conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Kalamandeen

Gloor

Johnson

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gold mining has rapidly increased across the Amazon Basin in recent years, especially in the Guiana shield, where it is responsible for >90% of total deforestation. However, the ability of forests to recover from gold mining activities remains largely unquantified. Forest inventory plots were installed on recently abandoned mines in two major mining regions in Guyana, and re‐censused 18 months later, to provide the first ground‐based quantification of gold mining impacts on Amazon forest biomass recovery. We found that woody biomass recovery rates on abandoned mining pits and tailing ponds are among the lowest ever recorded for tropical forests, with close to no woody biomass recovery after 3–4 years. On the overburden sites (i.e. areas not mined but where excavated soil is deposited), however, above‐ground biomass recovery rates (0.4–5.4 Mg ha−1 year−1) were within the range of those recorded in other secondary forests across the Neotropics following abandonment of pastures and agricultural lands. Our results suggest that forest recovery is more strongly limited by severe mining‐induced depletion of soil nutrients, especially nitrogen, than by mercury contamination, due to slowing of growth in nutrient‐stripped soils. We estimate that the slow recovery rates in mining pits and ponds currently reduce carbon sequestration across Amazonian secondary forests by ~21,000 t C/year, compared to the carbon that would have accumulated following more traditional land uses such as agriculture or pasture. Synthesis and applications. To achieve large‐scale restoration targets, Guyana and other Amazonian countries will be challenged to remediate previously mined lands. The recovery process is highly dependent on nitrogen availability rather than mercury contamination, affecting woody biomass regrowth. The significant recovery in overburden zones indicates that one potential active remediation strategy to promote biomass recovery may be to backfill mining pits and ponds with excavated soil.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Kalamandeen

Gloor

Johnson

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In general, late‐successional species that require prior organization of a particular niche before they can grow and establish tend to be rarer than species characteristic of the initial stages of succession in disturbed areas (Gaui et al, 2019; Rüger et al, 2020). C .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study in central Amazonia has shown that the impacts of logging on floristic composition are generally most evident during the first 13 years after selective logging and that logging results in a significant increase in fast‐growing pioneer species (Gaui et al, 2019). After this period, the floristic composition tends to shift toward the original (pre‐logging) stage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, late-successional species that require prior organization of a particular niche before they can grow and establish tend to be rarer than species characteristic of the initial stages of succession in disturbed areas (Gaui et al, 2019;Rüger et al, 2020). C. concolor, for example, is a fast-growing pioneer tree species commonly found in disturbed forests in Amazonia (Sposito & Santos, 2001).…”

Section: Community Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Community composition of tree and palm species following disturbance in a forest with bamboo in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil

Ziccardi

Graça

Figueiredo³

et al. 2021

Biotropica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropogenic disturbances such as selective logging and forest fires can cause further degradation in tropical forests. Various authors have suggested that logging and fire in southwestern Amazonia can increase bamboo abundance and contribute to slowing succession, but few studies have addressed community-composition patterns at either the local or the regional scale. We used a natural experiment with forest fire and post-burn logging to analyze the effects of increased bamboo abundance on the community composition of trees and palms in Brazil's Acre state in southwestern Amazonia. Bamboo abundance was expressed by variables collected both by field sampling and from high-resolution images using a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). Disturbance in these forests was associated with a significant reduction in the number of crowns of emergent trees and palms and an increase in the canopy fraction occupied by bamboo. A significant negative relationship was observed between the canopy area occupied by bamboo and the number of tree and palm species, regardless of the level of disturbance. Bamboo density (culms m −2 ) and canopy area occupied by bamboo had significant effects on community composition, indicating that bamboo abundance is a key driver affecting the floristic composition of the forest.

show abstract

“…In both cases, just two of them have diameter at the breast height equal or greater than 5 cm. Note that both trees have additional dead stems that were not included in our sampling and longest studied) for dry forests, such as adopting a common 10-cm threshold (D'Andrea et al, 2020;Gaui et al, 2019;Phillips et al, 2018).…”

Section: Impacts Of Minimum Dbh On Vegetation Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forests structure and diversity: A comparison of methodological choices

Souza

Maia

et al. 2021

Methods Ecol Evol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. Large-scale data compilation is increasing steadily in tropical forest research, but the lack of standardized methods for data collection limits drawing inference from large datasets and cross-biome analyses. Different inclusion methods and minimum tree diameter threshold are among these varying factors. To tackle this issue, we evaluated how different approaches for tree sampling affects our understanding of diversity and functioning in different tropical vegetation types.2. We used a unique dataset of 44 inventory plots (43.54 ha) encompassing an aridity gradient: evergreen moist forests, semideciduous and deciduous tropical forests.Data were collected using the by-tree inclusion method, in which, all stems are measured if the equivalent diameter of the tree reaches the minimum threshold.We simulated the impact of adopting different inclusion methods (by-stem and by-tree) and different minimum diameter thresholds on the estimation of number of trees and stems, biomass and species richness. We used linear and nonlinear mixed models to investigate the effect of minimum diameter threshold and inclusion method on our different response variables. We also evaluated species chance to be sampled under different minimum inclusion criteria.3. Inclusion method and minimum diameter threshold mainly affect the estimation of number of trees and stems and species richness, especially in deciduous and semideciduous forests, where resprouting is a prevalent strategy. In these forests, many trees that have several stems do not reach the minimum size individually when adopting the by-stem method, yet they do reach the minimum size threshold when all stems are considered together. For these environments under water stress, our analysis showed that using large minimum sizes, such as the 10 cm typically used in rainforests, implies large sampling losses, especially when used jointly with the by-stem inclusion method.4. The by-tree inclusion method represents an alternative approach that offers a more reliable sampling in different vegetation types, particularly in those habitats where resprouting is a widely encountered strategy along all age classes. 2018 | Methods in Ecology and Evoluঞon de SOUZA et Al.

show abstract

Long-term effect of selective logging on floristic composition: A 25 year experiment in the Brazilian Amazon

Cited by 34 publications

References 63 publications

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Community composition of tree and palm species following disturbance in a forest with bamboo in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil

Tropical forests structure and diversity: A comparison of methodological choices

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Long-term effect of selective logging on floristic composition: A 25 year experiment in the Brazilian Amazon

Cited by 34 publications

References 63 publications

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests

Community composition of tree and palm species following disturbance in a forest with bamboo in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil

Tropical forests structure and diversity: A comparison of methodological choices

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Long-term effect of selective logging on floristic composition: A 25 year experiment in the Brazilian Amazon