Title
Late twentieth-century trends in the structure and dynamics of South American forests
Date Issued
01 September 2007
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
book part
Author(s)
Lewis S.L.
Phillips O.L.
Baker T.R.
Lloyd J.
Malhi Y.
Almeida S.
Higuchi N.
Laurance W.F.
Neill D.A.
Silva J.N.M.
Terborgh J.
Lezama A.T.
Brown S.
Chave J.
Kuebler C.
Vinceti B.
Publisher(s)
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Widespread recent changes in the ecology of old-growth tropical forests have been documented, in particular an increase in stem turnover (pan-tropical), and an increase in above-ground biomass (neotropical). Whether these changes are synchronous and whether changes in growth are also occurring is not known. This chapter reports assesses changes from fifty long-term plots from across South America spanning 1971-2002. The key findings are significant increases in: basal area (BA: sum of the cross-sectional areas of all trees in a plot) (by approximately 0.10 square meters per hectare per year); stand-level BA growth; stand-level BA mortality; stem density (about 0.94stems per hectare per year); stem recruitment; and stem mortality. The gain terms (BA growth, stem recruitment) consistently exceeded the loss terms (BA loss, stem mortality) throughout, suggesting that whatever process is driving these changes was already acting before the plot network was established. Long-term, simultaneous increases in growth, BA and stem density imply a continent-wide increase in resource availability which is affecting productivity and forest dynamics. Changes in incoming solar radiation, increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO2, and temperature increases, may all have increased resource supply over recent decades, accelerating growth and dynamics in the world's largest tropical forest.
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geografía física Geociencias, Multidisciplinar
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84920368694
ISBN
9780191717888 0198567065 9780198567066
Resource of which it is part
Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change
ISBN of the container
9780191717888
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus