Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T22:12:14.839Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Regeneration following clearing in a Jamaican montane forest: results of a ten-year study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

A. M. Sugden ,
E. V. J. Tanner  and
V. Kapos
A. M. Sugden
Affiliation:
Botany School, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, England
E. V. J. Tanner
Affiliation:
Botany School, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, England
V. Kapos
Affiliation:
Missouri Botanical Garden, 2345 Tower Grove Avenue, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Succession was monitored over ten years in a 10×10m plot in forest with mor humus at 1550 m in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, following the removal in January 1975 of all aerial plant parts and some of the root material. In April 1977, August–January 1980/1 and August 1984, all woody recruits in the plot were tagged and numbered, identified and measured (height), and mapped on a 1 m grid. The height of coppice was recorded. Ten of the eleven tree species present before felling produced coppice shoots. Two individuals almost attained canopy height by 1984. Twenty tree species and three shrub species were recruited from seed; six of the tree species were normally absent from the forest. Species composition changed very little with time.

The rate of seedling recruitment was greatest immediately after clearing. The overall den-sity of individuals changed little after 1977. Overall mortality of recruits was about 10% per annum. Mortality of the earliest recruits declined with time since establishment. Later recruits and individuals with poor growth had higher mortality than other plants. Mortality was not density-dependent. Growth rates of recruits were relatively slow. Only ten individuals exceeded 4 m by 1984.

Recruitment rates, density, growth and species diversity were greatest in the parts of the plot where the mor humus had been removed or piled up during the initial clearance. Recruit-ment, growth and density were least, and mortality was greatest, at the edge. There was no relationship between any of these parameters and the presence of coppicing stumps.

Tree species showed a clear spectrum from obligate gap-demanders to obligate shade-bearers. The persistence of gap-demanding species in this forest (in which gaps are normally rare) may be due to infrequent hurricanes, and also to a natural ability to produce basal sprouts. The succession conforms to an initial floristic composition model; it is slow, and we suggest that at least 50 years will elapse before the plot begins to resemble the undisturbed forest.

Keywords

coppicedisturbanceJamaicaregenerationseedlingssuccessiontropical montane forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , November 1985 , pp. 329 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Adams, C. D. 1972. Flowering Plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.Google Scholar
Bazzaz, F. A. & Pickett, S. T. A. 1980. Physiological ecology of tropical succession: a comparative review. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11:287–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byer, M. D. & Weaver, P. L. 1977. Early secondary succession in an elfin woodland in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Biotropica 9:35–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denslow, J. S. 1980. Gap partitioning among tropical rainforest trees. Biotropica 12 (supplement): 47–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, T. W. 1981. The rôle of disturbance in the gap dynamics of a montane rain forest: an application of a tropical forest succession model. Pp. 56–73 in West, D. C.Shugart, H. H. & Botkin, D. B. (eds) Forest succession concepts and application. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finegan, B. 1984. Forest succession. Nature 312:109–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P. J. 1977. The maintenance of species-richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Biological Reviews 52:107–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P. J. & Tanner, E. V. J. 1976. The montane forests and soils of Jamaica: a reassessment. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 57:313–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halle, F., Oldeman, R. A. A. & Tomlinson, P. B. 1978. Tropical trees and forests, an architec-tural analysis. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Lawton, R & Dryer, V. 1980. The vegetation of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Brenesia 18:101–116.Google Scholar
Proctor, G. R 1985. Ferns of Jamaica. British Museum (Natural History), London.Google Scholar
Putz, F. 1983. Treefall pits and mounds, buried seeds, and the importance of soil disturbance to pioneer trees on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Ecology 64:1069–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugden, A. M. 1982. The ecological, geographic, and taxonomic relationships of the flora of an isolated Colombian cloud forest, with some implications for island biogeography. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 63:31–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugden, A. M. (in press.). The montane vegetation and flora of Margarita Island, Venezuela. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum.Google Scholar
Swaine, M. D. & Hall, J. B. 1983. Early succession on cleared forest land in Ghana. Journal of Eco-logy 71:601–627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, E. V. J. 1977. Four montane rain forests of Jamaica: a quantitative characterization of the floristics, the soils and the foliar mineral levels, and a discussion of the interrelations. Journal of Ecology 65:883–918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, E. V. J. 1980. Studies on the biomass and productivity of a series of montane rain forests in Jamaica. Journal of Ecology 68:573–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, E. V. J. 1982. Species diversity and reproductive mechanisms in Jamaican trees. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 18:263–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhl, C., Clark, K., Clark, H. & Murphy, P. 1981. Early plant succession after cutting and burning in the upper Río Negro region of the Amazon basin. Journal of Ecology 69:631–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1983. Secondary succession from seed in tropical rain forests. Forestry Abstracts 44:767–779.Google Scholar