Secondary succession

Biology

Biodiversity

Reforestation

Geography

Forest restoration

Vegetation (pathology)

Environmental science

Medicine

Forest ecology

Secondary forest

Climate change

Pioneer species

Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests

Ecological succession

Ecology

Agroforestry

Ecosystem

Pathology

Nature Ecology & Evolution

Tropical forests are converted at an alarming rate for agricultural use and pastureland, but also regrow naturally through secondary succession. For successful forest restoration, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of secondary succession. These mechanisms may vary across forest types, but analyses across broad spatial scales are lacking. Here, we analyse forest recovery using 1,403 plots that differ in age since agricultural abandonment from 50 sites across the Neotropics. We analyse changes in community composition using species-specific stem wood density (WD), which is a key trait for plant growth, survival and forest carbon storage. In wet forest, succession proceeds from low towards high community WD (acquisitive towards conservative trait values), in line with standard successional theory. However, in dry forest, succession proceeds from high towards low community WD (conservative towards acquisitive trait values), probably because high WD reflects drought tolerance in harsh early successional...

Wet and dry tropical forests show opposite successional pathways in wood density but converge over time