A glimpse into the future of tropical forest

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Tropical forests are an important hotspot of biodiversity, who's evolution over decades or even longer periods of time needs to be studied.

This is exactly what researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, the University of Leipzig and other international research institutions have achieved. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Science.

Nowhere in the world is the loss of the so-called primary forests advancing faster than in the tropics. The natural primary forests are compelled to give way to agriculture and livestock farming and, as a result of clearing, important habitats are lost. 

In order to manage the recovery and renaturation of tropical forests, it is necessary to be able to predict how the forests will develop. To achieve this, certain parameters must be known; how quickly do the trees grow and how quickly do they die? How many offspring do they produce, which then in turn ensure the continued existence of the species? This is precisely the data which has been recorded in Panama over the past 40 years, in one of the most researched tropical rainforests in the world, for 282 tree species.

Using this data, researchers were able to show that trees pursue different strategies during their development. On the one hand, they differ in terms of their pace of life; while ‘fast’ species both grow and die quickly, ‘slow’ species grow slowly and reach an old age. On the other hand, trees can differ regarding their stature, irrespective of pace of life. These ‘infertile giants’, also known as long-lived pioneers, grow relatively quickly, and reach a great stature, but produce only a few offspring per year, contrasting with the ‘fertile dwarfs’; small shrubs and treelets which grow slowly and do not live long, but produce a large number of offspring. 

Full article: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/04/a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-tropical-forests/127470