ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6241-8803
Current Organisation
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
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Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-2022
Abstract: Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring bio ersity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristic groups, with a between-group dissimilarity of 0.97. Floristic groups were associated with location, bioregions, soil pH, temperature seasonality, and water availability. Hence, there is large continental-scale variation in the species composition of early successional forests, which is mainly associated with biogeographic and environmental factors but not with human disturbance indicators. This floristic distinctiveness is partially driven by regionally restricted species belonging to widespread genera. Early secondary forests contribute therefore to restoring and conserving the distinctiveness of bioregions across the Neotropical realm, and forest restoration initiatives should use local species to assure that these distinct floras are maintained.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 15-06-2015
Abstract: Although forest succession has been approached as a predictable process, successional trajectories vary widely, even among nearby stands with similar environmental conditions and disturbance histories. We quantified predictability and uncertainty during tropical forest succession using dynamical models describing the interactions among stem density, basal area, and species density over time. We showed that the trajectories of these forest attributes were poorly predicted by stand age and varied significantly within and among sites. Our models reproduced the general successional trends observed, but high levels of noise were needed to increase model predictability. These levels of uncertainty call into question the premise that successional processes are consistent over space and time, and challenge the way ecologists view tropical forest regeneration.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-03-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13669
Abstract: Tropical forest succession and associated changes in community composition are driven by species demographic rates, but how demographic strategies shift during succession remains unclear. Our goal was to identify generalities in demographic trade‐offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across Neotropical forests that cover a large rainfall gradient and to test whether the current conceptual model of tropical forest succession applies to wet and dry forests. Mexico and Central America. 1985–2018. Trees. We used repeated forest inventory data from two wet and two dry forests to quantify demographic rates of 781 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade‐offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted principal components analysis to account for differences in s le size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young ( years) to old‐growth forests. Across all forests, we found two demographic trade‐offs, namely the growth–survival trade‐off and the stature–recruitment trade‐off, enabling the data‐driven assignment of species to five demographic strategies. Fast species dominated early in succession and were then replaced by long‐lived pioneers in three forests. Intermediate and slow species increased in basal area over succession in all forests, but, in contrast to the current conceptual model, long‐lived pioneers continued to dominate until the old‐growth stage in all forests. The basal area of short‐lived breeders was low across all successional stages. The current conceptual model of Neotropical forest succession should be revised to incorporate the dominance of long‐lived pioneers in late‐successional and old‐growth forests. Moreover, the definition of consistent demographic strategies that show clear dominance shifts across succession substantially improves the mechanistic understanding and predictability of Neotropical forest succession.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-06-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16302
Abstract: Data capturing multiple axes of tree size and shape, such as a tree's stem diameter, height and crown size, underpin a wide range of ecological research—from developing and testing theory on forest structure and dynamics, to estimating forest carbon stocks and their uncertainties, and integrating remote sensing imagery into forest monitoring programmes. However, these data can be surprisingly hard to come by, particularly for certain regions of the world and for specific taxonomic groups, posing a real barrier to progress in these fields. To overcome this challenge, we developed the Tallo database, a collection of 498,838 georeferenced and taxonomically standardized records of in idual trees for which stem diameter, height and/or crown radius have been measured. These data were collected at 61,856 globally distributed sites, spanning all major forested and non‐forested biomes. The majority of trees in the database are identified to species (88%), and collectively Tallo includes data for 5163 species distributed across 1453 genera and 187 plant families. The database is publicly archived under a CC‐BY 4.0 licence and can be access from: 0.5281/zenodo.6637599 . To demonstrate its value, here we present three case studies that highlight how the Tallo database can be used to address a range of theoretical and applied questions in ecology—from testing the predictions of metabolic scaling theory, to exploring the limits of tree allometric plasticity along environmental gradients and modelling global variation in maximum attainable tree height. In doing so, we provide a key resource for field ecologists, remote sensing researchers and the modelling community working together to better understand the role that trees play in regulating the terrestrial carbon cycle.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-05-2017
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 05-02-2018
Abstract: Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, ersity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification that is explicitly based on community evolutionary similarity, resulting in identification of five major tropical forest regions and their relationships: ( i ) Indo-Pacific, ( ii ) Subtropical, ( iii ) African, ( iv ) American, and ( v ) Dry forests. African and American forests are grouped, reflecting their former western Gondwanan connection, while Indo-Pacific forests range from eastern Africa and Madagascar to Australia and the Pacific. The connection between northern-hemisphere Asian and American forests is confirmed, while Dry forests are identified as a single tropical biome.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 10-12-2021
Abstract: Although deforestation is r ant across the tropics, forest has a strong capacity to regrow on abandoned lands. These “secondary” forests may increasingly play important roles in bio ersity 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 ersity) in 77 secondary forest sites in the Americas and West Africa. They found that different attributes recovered at different rates, with soil recovering in less than a decade and species ersity and biomass recovering in little more than a century. The authors discuss how these findings can be applied in efforts to promote forest restoration. —AMS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-07-2022
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12876
Abstract: Disturbances alter bio ersity via their specific characteristics, including severity and extent in the landscape, which act at different temporal and spatial scales. Bio ersity response to disturbance also depends on the community characteristics and habitat requirements of species. Untangling the mechanistic interplay of these factors has guided disturbance ecology for decades, generating mixed scientific evidence of bio ersity responses to disturbance. Understanding the impact of natural disturbances on bio ersity is increasingly important due to human‐induced changes in natural disturbance regimes. In many areas, major natural forest disturbances, such as wildfires, windstorms, and insect outbreaks, are becoming more frequent, intense, severe, and widespread due to climate change and land‐use change. Conversely, the suppression of natural disturbances threatens disturbance‐dependent biota. Using a meta‐analytic approach, we analysed a global data set (with most s ling concentrated in temperate and boreal secondary forests) of species assemblages of 26 taxonomic groups, including plants, animals, and fungi collected from forests affected by wildfires, windstorms, and insect outbreaks. The overall effect of natural disturbances on α‐ ersity did not differ significantly from zero, but some taxonomic groups responded positively to disturbance, while others tended to respond negatively. Disturbance was beneficial for taxonomic groups preferring conditions associated with open canopies (e.g. hymenopterans and hoverflies), whereas ground‐dwelling groups and/or groups typically associated with shady conditions (e.g. epigeic lichens and mycorrhizal fungi) were more likely to be negatively impacted by disturbance. Across all taxonomic groups, the highest α‐ ersity in disturbed forest patches occurred under moderate disturbance severity, i.e. with approximately 55% of trees killed by disturbance. We further extended our meta‐analysis by applying a unified ersity concept based on Hill numbers to estimate α‐ ersity changes in different taxonomic groups across a gradient of disturbance severity measured at the stand scale and incorporating other disturbance features. We found that disturbance severity negatively affected ersity for Hill number q = 0 but not for q = 1 and q = 2, indicating that ersity–disturbance relationships are shaped by species relative abundances. Our synthesis of α‐ ersity was extended by a synthesis of disturbance‐induced change in species assemblages, and revealed that disturbance changes the β‐ ersity of multiple taxonomic groups, including some groups that were not affected at the α‐ ersity level (birds and woody plants). Finally, we used mixed rarefaction/extrapolation to estimate bio ersity change as a function of the proportion of forests that were disturbed, i.e. the disturbance extent measured at the landscape scale. The comparison of intact and naturally disturbed forests revealed that both types of forests provide habitat for unique species assemblages, whereas species ersity in the mixture of disturbed and undisturbed forests peaked at intermediate values of disturbance extent in the simulated landscape. Hence, the relationship between α‐ ersity and disturbance severity in disturbed forest stands was strikingly similar to the relationship between species richness and disturbance extent in a landscape consisting of both disturbed and undisturbed forest habitats. This result suggests that both moderate disturbance severity and moderate disturbance extent support the highest levels of bio ersity in contemporary forest landscapes.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 20-10-2016
DOI: 10.3390/RS8100865
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE16512
Abstract: Land-use change occurs nowhere more rapidly than in the tropics, where the imbalance between deforestation and forest regrowth has large consequences for the global carbon cycle. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the rate of biomass recovery in secondary forests, and how these rates are influenced by climate, landscape, and prior land use. Here we analyse aboveground biomass recovery during secondary succession in 45 forest sites and about 1,500 forest plots covering the major environmental gradients in the Neotropics. The studied secondary forests are highly productive and resilient. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years was on average 122 megagrams per hectare (Mg ha(-1)), corresponding to a net carbon uptake of 3.05 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1), 11 times the uptake rate of old-growth forests. Aboveground biomass stocks took a median time of 66 years to recover to 90% of old-growth values. Aboveground biomass recovery after 20 years varied 11.3-fold (from 20 to 225 Mg ha(-1)) across sites, and this recovery increased with water availability (higher local rainfall and lower climatic water deficit). We present a biomass recovery map of Latin America, which illustrates geographical and climatic variation in carbon sequestration potential during forest regrowth. The map will support policies to minimize forest loss in areas where biomass resilience is naturally low (such as seasonally dry forest regions) and promote forest regeneration and restoration in humid tropical lowland areas with high biomass resilience.
Publisher: Botanical Sciences, Sociedad Botanica de Mexico, AC
Date: 25-08-2015
DOI: 10.17129/BOTSCI.150
Abstract: Quercus (oak) is among the most speciose and widespread genera occurring in Mexico paradoxically, the ecological knowledge about Mexican oak forests is meager. Here we describe the floristic composition, ersity, and structure of the terrestrial component of the oak forests of the El Tepozteco National Park (TNP), Central Mexico, and relate their floristic and structural heterogeneity to the geomorphological complexity of the park. We randomly distributed sixty 100-m2 plots among six geomorphological units: the lava fields of the Chichinautzin, Suchiooc, Otates (upper and lower) and Oclayuca volcanoes, and the El Tepozteco Range. Vegetation structure and ersity were described by geomorphological unit and for the oak forest as a whole for canopy (DBH ? 2.5 cm) and understory plants. We report 324 vascular plant species recorded in the plots, plus 17 species collected outside the plots (a total of 341 species, 208 genera and 88 families). The family with more species was Asteraceae (57) and the most speciose genus was Salvia (0). Geomorphological units differed in mean species richness per plot (2.0-33.5 species), absolute richness (60-149 species), and species’ structural contributions. Structural differences were also observed, but they were not always significant. Quercus rugosa was dominant in Chichinautzin, Suchiooc, and upper Otates Styrax ramirezii in lower Otates and Oclayuca, and Quercus castanea and Q. obtusata shared dominance in El Tepozteco Range (the unit with the largest overall richness and oak species ersity). The structure and composition of TNP oak forests are highly variable, apparently due to the region’s complex geological past. This heterogeneity should guide the conservation and restoration of these forests.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-08-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01831-X
Abstract: The latitudinal ersity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with in idual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million s le plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of bio ersity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-11-2015
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12231
Abstract: Old-growth tropical forests are being extensively deforested and fragmented worldwide. Yet forest recovery through succession has led to an expansion of secondary forests in human-modified tropical landscapes (HMTLs). Secondary forests thus emerge as a potential repository for tropical bio ersity, and also as a source of essential ecosystem functions and services in HMTLs. Such critical roles are controversial, however, as they depend on successional, landscape and socio-economic dynamics, which can vary widely within and across landscapes and regions. Understanding the main drivers of successional pathways of disturbed tropical forests is critically needed for improving management, conservation, and restoration strategies. Here, we combine emerging knowledge from tropical forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to identify the main driving forces shaping successional pathways at different spatial scales. We also explore causal connections between land-use dynamics and the level of predictability of successional pathways, and examine potential implications of such connections to determine the importance of secondary forests for bio ersity conservation in HMTLs. We show that secondary succession (SS) in tropical landscapes is a multifactorial phenomenon affected by a myriad of forces operating at multiple spatio-temporal scales. SS is relatively fast and more predictable in recently modified landscapes and where well-preserved bio ersity-rich native forests are still present in the landscape. Yet the increasing variation in landscape spatial configuration and matrix heterogeneity in landscapes with intermediate levels of disturbance increases the uncertainty of successional pathways. In landscapes that have suffered extensive and intensive human disturbances, however, succession can be slow or arrested, with impoverished assemblages and reduced potential to deliver ecosystem functions and services. We conclude that: (i) succession must be examined using more comprehensive explanatory models, providing information about the forces affecting not only the presence but also the persistence of species and ecological groups, particularly of those taxa expected to be extirpated from HMTLs (ii) SS research should integrate new aspects from forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to address accurately the potential of secondary forests to serve as bio ersity repositories and (iii) secondary forest stands, as a dynamic component of HMTLs, must be incorporated as key elements of conservation planning i.e. secondary forest stands must be actively managed (e.g. using assisted forest restoration) according to conservation goals at broad spatial scales.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 11-01-2023
Abstract: Abandonment of agricultural lands promotes the global expansion of secondary forests, which are critical for preserving bio ersity and ecosystem functions and services. Such roles largely depend, however, on two essential successional attributes, trajectory and recovery rate, which are expected to depend on landscape-scale forest cover in nonlinear ways. Using a multi-scale approach and a large vegetation dataset (843 plots, 3511 tree species) from 22 secondary forest chronosequences distributed across the Neotropics, we show that successional trajectories of woody plant species richness, stem density and basal area are less predictable in landscapes (4 km radius) with intermediate (40–60%) forest cover than in landscapes with high (greater than 60%) forest cover. This supports theory suggesting that high spatial and environmental heterogeneity in intermediately deforested landscapes can increase the variation of key ecological factors for forest recovery (e.g. seed dispersal and seedling recruitment), increasing the uncertainty of successional trajectories. Regarding the recovery rate, only species richness is positively related to forest cover in relatively small (1 km radius) landscapes. These findings highlight the importance of using a spatially explicit landscape approach in restoration initiatives and suggest that these initiatives can be more effective in more forested landscapes, especially if implemented across spatial extents of 1–4 km radius.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-06-2015
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-04-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-019-0882-6
Abstract: 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 environments. Dry season intensity drives WD recovery by influencing the start and trajectory of succession, resulting in convergence of the community WD over time as vegetation cover builds up. These ecological insights can be used to improve species selection for reforestation. Reforestation species selected to establish a first protective canopy layer should, among other criteria, ideally have a similar WD to the early successional communities that dominate under the prevailing macroclimatic conditions.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 29-11-2021
Abstract: Tropical forests disappear rapidly through deforestation but also have the potential to regrow naturally through a process called secondary succession. To advance successional theory, it is essential to understand how these secondary forests and their assembly vary across broad spatial scales. We do so by synthesizing continental-scale patterns in succession using a functional trait approach. We show that the start and pathway of succession varies with climatic water availability. In dry forests, succession is driven by drought tolerance traits and in wet forests by shade tolerance traits. Based on these successional principles, we propose an ecologically sound strategy to improve active forest restoration.
No related grants have been discovered for Jorge Arturo Meave del Castillo.