Science – Poorter et al. (2021): Multidimensional tropical forest recovery
Lourens Poorter, Dylan Crave, Catarina C. Jakovac, Masha T. van der Sande, Lucy Amissah, Frans Bongers, Robin L. Chazdon, Caroline E. Farrior, Stephan Kambach, […] Bruno Hérault, + 81 authors IN: Science, Vol 374, Issue 6573, 1370-1376, DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3629
Although deforestation is rampant across the tropics, forest has a strong capacity to regrow on abandoned lands. These “secondary” forests may increasingly play important roles in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and landscape restoration. Poorter et al. analyzed the patterns of recovery in forest attributes (related to soil, plant functioning, structure, and diversity) in 77 secondary forest sites in the Americas and West Africa.