Structure, composition and carbon stocks of woody plant community in assisted and unassisted ecological succession in a Tamaulipan thornscrub, Mexico

Abstract

Background Ecological restoration is a process that helps the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed. The success of restoration actions depend on the understanding of the processes, mechanisms and factors that guide vegetation dynamics. The restoration of plant communities can be made by unassisted (passive restoration, where the community recover by itself) and assisted (active restoration) ecological succession. It is imperative to know the scope of both types of activities to guide future restoration actions by evaluating the properties and functioning of the intervened communities. Methods Variance analysis of the carbon (C) stocks, basal area, canopy area, Shannon–Weaver index values, specific richness and abundance of three Tamaulipan thornscrub communities (assisted natural succession area, unassisted natural succession area and control area) was performed. Furthermore, a similarity analysis between the sampling areas using the floristic composition (abundance) was performed. Results In total, 11 families, 17 genera and 20 species of vascular plants were registered. The richness of species and abundance ranked as follows per area: assisted ecological natural succession > control > unassisted ecological natural succession. The species composition between sampling areas showed a low number of common species between plant communities. Conclusions The values of species richness, diversity, abundance, basal area, and canopy area of the assisted natural succession vegetal community was statistical similar to the control plan community. The values of C stocks showed that assisted ecological succession could recover not only structure and composition attributes but also this key ecosystem property.

Estructura, diversidad y estimación de carbono de un ecotono entre matorral espinoso tamaulipeco y submontano

“…El índice de Shannon-Wiener fue de 1.56, mientras que, la diversidad verdadera fue de 4.75. Los valores obtenidos en los índices de diversidad fueron más bajos a los registrados por Molina et al (2014), Mora-Olivo et al (2016), y Alanís-Rodríguez et al (2021), quienes evaluaron comunidades vegetales xerófilas del noreste de México y registraron valores de Margelef superiores a 3.00, de Shannon mayores de 2.80 y del índice de diversidad verdadera de Shannon superiores a 16.00. Estos valores bajos de los índices de diversidad están asociados a dos factores, por una parte, la baja riqueza de especies y la otra la alta abundancia de una o dos especies y la escasa abundancia del resto de especies (Alanís-Rodríguez et al 2020).…”

Evaluación de una restauración mediante dron en el matorral espinoso tamaulipeco

“…Las evaluaciones intermedias sirven para evaluar el éxito o fracaso así emprender acciones correctivas de gestión (Pequeño-Ledezma et al, 2016). Generalmente, la evaluación de los proyectos de restauración forestal se realiza in situ, midiendo directamente variables dasométricas y determinando la vigorosidad de los árboles o arbustos plantados (Alanís-Rodríguez, E., Molina-Guerra, V.M., Collantes-Chavéz-Costa, A., Buendía-Rodríguez, E., Mora-Olivo, A., Sánchez-Castillo, L., 2021;Alanís Rodríguez et al, 2016).…”