Postdisturbance recovery of aboveground biomass and nutrients in tropical temperate, and boreal forests
Abstract
A number of issues in basic and applied forest ecology require an understanding of the controls on post-disturbance regrowth that result in variable rates of biomass accumulation. In this study, aboveground biomass data was compiled from chronosequence and long-term studies of secondary forests worldwide to model aboveground biomass accumulation (ABA) in forests following stand-clearing disturbances. ^ Regression analyses and tests for slope homogeneity indicate that soil texture influenced the ABA of broadleaf forests; broadleaf stands underlain by sandy soils exhibited slower GSDY-adjusted ABA than broadleaf stands growing on non-sandy soils. On non-sandy soils, the GSDY-adjusted ABA of tropical and non-tropical broadleaf forests was indistinguishable; as a group, tropical forests are not particularly slow to recover aboveground biomass following disturbance events. Differences in soil texture were less important for needle-leaf forests; on the whole, the GSDY-adjusted ABA of needle-leaf forests was intermediate between that of sandy and non-sandy broad-leaved forests. ^ The global model of forest ABA was tested by calculating rates of ABA for forests recovering from slash-and—burn cultivation on two Amazonian sites—sandy dystrophic upland (terra firme) and non-sandy eutrophic floodplain (várzea). As predicted by the global model, non-sandy várzea forests accumulated more biomass and at a faster rate than sandy terra firme forests. ^ Disturbance characteristics (e.g., size, severity, and frequency) may also influence ABA. The global model of ABA included only regrowth following stand-clearing disturbances. The model was applied to broadleaf and coniferous temperate montane rainforests in southern Chile to test its applicability to regrowth following less severe, patchy disturbances. ABA following gap-disturbance was highly variable, although most plots fell within the range of biomass predicted by the global model. ^
Subject Area
Biology, Ecology|Agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife
Recommended Citation
Christine May Johnson,
"Postdisturbance recovery of aboveground biomass and nutrients in tropical temperate, and boreal forests"
(January 1, 1999).
Dissertations available from ProQuest.
Paper AAI9926146.
http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9926146